Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
644698 Applied Thermal Engineering 2016 9 Pages PDF
Abstract

•Performing the scale analysis for developing heat transfer inside porous materials;•Analytical study of thermally developing forced convection in porous-microchannels;•Effects of slip-flow regime on the Nusselt  number and thermal entry length;•Finding model B to yield inconsistent results with the LTE limit in slip-flow;•Discussing on the thermally fully developed flow assumption in slip-flow regime.

The thermally developing forced convection heat transfer in a micro-channel filled with a porous material in the slip-flow regime is analyzed. Channel walls are subjected to a constant heat flux. The local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) condition is considered and both the fluid and solid phases in the porous region are assumed to have internal heat generation. According to a perturbation analysis assuming small temperature difference between the two phases obtained by the scale analysis, we show that there is no need to apply a thermal boundary condition model at the channel wall. Thus, we obtained an analytical solution for the thermally developing Nusselt number (Nu) using no model. Thermal boundary condition models (A and B) are also used to find the temperature jump at the wall. Comparing Nu of models A and B with the pure perturbation analysis (using no model) and with the solution under local thermal equilibrium (LTE) condition reveals that model B cannot predict the LTE condition when a temperature jump exists on the wall. Hence, model A may be the only valid scenario in the slip-flow regime. In addition, expressions for the thermal entry length (xdeveloping) are proposed. An increase in β as well as a decrease in the thermal conductivity ratio (k) decrease xdeveloping.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Chemical Engineering Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes
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