Entropy generation and heat transfer numerical analysis in pipes partially filled with porous medium

In the present work, entropy generation and convective heat transfer through a pipe partially filled with a porous material is studied numerically for two different cases. In the first one, the cylindrical porous material is placed at the core, while in the second case it is attached to the inner wall, which has subjected to constant heat flux. Developing, laminar, steady, incompressible flow and heat transfer is simulated, using finite volume SIMPLER algorithm. In the porous region Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model is applied to simulate fluid characteristics. The results of the present numerical simulation are in complete agreement with the previous investigations. The average Nusselt number, entropy generation rate, and Bejan number are studied over a wide range of porous medium thickness, Darcy number and thermal conductivity ratio. The results indicated that the position of the porous medium has considerable effect on the performance of the composite pipe. It is also concluded that the thermal conductivity ratio has significant effect on increasing enhanced heat transfer in case 1. For example for Da = 10−4 and Rp = 0.9, multiplying thermal conductivity ratio by 10 leads to 641 percent enhancement of Nusselt number.