Interfacial convective heat transfer for randomly generated porous media

Abstract

Heat and fluid flow in 20 random porous media is investigated by using the Monte Carlo (MC) procedure. Each porous medium consists of long square rods distributed randomly in flow direction. The continuity, momentum, and energy equations are solved for a row of porous media representing the entire domain of a random porous medium. The microstructure properties of each random porous medium which are the mean and standard deviations of the Voronoi areas, the nearest neighbor distance and orientation are obtained. The rods in the domain are classified into three groups as blocker, active, and passive rods according to their effects on the penetration of heat in porous media. 'The interfacial convective heat transfer coefficients for each rod and entire porous medium are calculated and plotted for different Reynolds numbers. A characteristic length based on the microstructure properties of the generated porous media is defined, and three correlations relating to the upper limit, lower limit, and mean of the overall interfacial convective heat transfer coefficient are proposed.