Investigation of turbulence effects within porous layer on the thermal performance of a partially filled pipe

Turbulent flow in a composite porous/fluid domain is usually addressed in the literature assuming laminar flow inside the porous region. However, some of the recent studies revealed the high level of turbulent quantities inside the porous region of composite porous/fluid domains. Therefore, a comparison is made between the results of turbulent and laminar simulations in the present study in order to get more insight on the effects of turbulence inside the porous region on fluid flow and heat transfer in a pipe partially filled with a porous media. The effects of turbulence inside the porous layer on velocity, turbulence parameters, temperature distribution and Nusselt number are analysed for different Darcy numbers and several porous layer thicknesses. It is shown that the turbulence effects inside the porous layer are important even for pore base Reynolds numbers lower than the critical Reynolds number in porous media.