Thermal analysis of a 2-D heat recovery system using porous media including lattice Boltzmann simulation of fluid flow

The present work deals with the fluid flow simulation and thermal analysis of a two-dimensional heat recovery system using porous media. A basic high-temperature flow system is considered in which a high-temperature non-radiating gas flows through a random porous matrix. The porous medium, in addition to its convective heat exchange with the gas, may absorb, emit and scatter thermal radiation. It is desirable to have large amount of radiative heat flux from the porous segment in the upstream direction (towards the thermal system). The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to simulate fluid flow in the porous medium. The gas and solid phases are considered in non-local thermal equilibrium, and separate energy equations are applied to these phases. Convection, conduction and radiation heat transfers take place simultaneously in solid phase, but in the gas flow, heat transfer occurs by conduction and convection. In order to analyze the thermal characteristics of the heat recovery system, volume-averaged velocities through the porous matrix obtained by LBM are used in the gas energy equation and then the coupled energy equations for gas and porous medium are numerically solved using finite difference method. For computing of radiative heat flux in the porous medium, discrete ordinates method is used to solve the radiative transfer equation. Finally the effect of various parameters on the performance of porous heat recovery system is studied.