Numerical Simulation on Forced Convection Heat Transfer Performance and Pressure Drop of High Permeability Porous Media

We studied the forced convection heat transfer performance and pressure drop of high permeability metal cellular porous media in air flow using a 3-dimensional thermofluid computation code. The temperature and velocity distributions in the air flow region, local heat transfer coefficient, and local heat flux on the surface of the porous media were numerically calculated for steady air flow by changing the parameters of the pore size and air velocity. The cellular porous media were modeled by pin array, cube geometry, and truncated octahedron geometry using thin wires. The diameter of the wires was 0.1 mm, and the pore per inch (PPI) was 5–50. The relations between the Nusselt number using the volumetric heat transfer coefficient and the Reynolds number were obtained from our calculation results, and we compared them with conventionally proposed experimental correlations. Also, the pressure drop calculation result was compared with conventionally proposed experimental correlations. The following results were obtained. The local heat transfer coefficient and local heat flux on the surface of porous media were small near the joint positions of the wires of the cellular porous media because of the thermal boundary layer. The volumetric heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop agreed with conventionally proposed experimental correlations within errors of twice the volumetric heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. The relation between the heat transfer rate per unit volume and the heat transfer area per unit volume agreed with the convection heat transfer correlation for a tube bundle.