P. Nithiarasu

Natural convective heat transfer in a fluid saturated variable porosity medium

Abstract A generalised non-Darcian porous medium model for natural convective flow has been developed taking into account linear and non-linear matrix drag components as well as the inertial and viscous forces within the fluid. The results of the general model have been validated with the help of experimental data and compared with the various non-Darcy porous media model predictions reported in literature. It has been observed that the wall Nusselt number is significantly affected by the combination of dimensionless parameters such as Rayleigh number, Darcy number and porosity in the non-Darcy flow regime. A detailed parametric study has been presented for natural convective flow inside a rectangular enclosure filled with saturated porous medium of constant or variable porosity. It is observed that the thickness of the porous layer and the nature of variation in porosity significantly affect the natural convective flow pattern as well as the heat transfer features. The present model is also able to predict the channeling effect and associated heat transfer in forced flow through packed beds.

Fundamentals of the Finite Element Method for Heat and Fluid Flow: Lewis/Finite Element Method for Heat and Fluid Flow

Preface. 1 Introduction. 1.1 Importance of Heat Transfer. 1.2 Heat Transfer Modes. 1.3 The Laws of Heat Transfer. 1.4 Formulation of Heat Transfer Problems. 1.4.1 Heat transfer from a plate exposed to solar heat flux. 1.4.2 Incandescent lamp. 1.4.3 Systems with a relative motion and internal heat generation. 1.5 Heat Conduction Equation. 1.6 Boundary and Initial Conditions. 1.7 Solution Methodology. 1.8 Summary. 1.9 Exercise. Bibliography. 2 Some Basic Discrete Systems. 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 Steady State Problems. 2.2.1 Heat flow in a composite slab. 2.2.2 Fluid flow network. 2.2.3 Heat transfer in heat sinks (combined conduction-convection). 2.2.4 Analysis of a heat exchanger. 2.3 Transient Heat Transfer Problem (Propagation Problem). 2.4 Summary. 2.5 Exercise. Bibliography. 3 The Finite Elemen t Method. 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Elements and Shape Functions. 3.2.1 One-dimensional linear element. 3.2.2 One-dimensional quadratic element. 3.2.3 Two-dimensional linear triangular elements. 3.2.4 Area coordinates. 3.2.5 Quadratic triangular elements. 3.2.6 Two-dimensional quadrilateral elements. 3.2.7 Isoparametric elements. 3.2.8 Three-dimensional elements. 3.3 Formulation (Element Characteristics). 3.3.1 Ritz method (Heat balance integral method-Goodmans method). 3.3.2 Rayleigh-Ritz method (Variational method). 3.3.3 The method of weighted residuals. 3.3.4 Galerkin finite element method. 3.4 Formulation for the Heat Conduction Equation. 3.4.1 Variational approach. 3.4.2 The Galerkin method. 3.5 Requirements for Interpolation Functions. 3.6 Summary. 3.7 Exercise. Bibliography. 4 Steady State Heat Conduction in One Dimension. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Plane Walls. 4.2.1 Homogeneous wall. 4.2.2 Composite wall. 4.2.3 Finite element discretization. 4.2.4 Wall with varying cross-sectional area. 4.2.5 Plane wall with a heat source: solution by linear elements. 4.2.6 Plane wall with a heat source: solution by quadratic elements. 4.2.7 Plane wall with a heat source: solution by modified quadratic equations (static condensation). 4.3 Radial Heat Flow in a Cylinder. 4.3.1 Cylinder with heat source. 4.4 Conduction-Convection Systems. 4.5 Summary. 4.6 Exercise. Bibliography. 5 Steady State Heat Conduction in Multi-dimensions. 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 Two-dimensional Plane Problems. 5.2.1 Triangular elements. 5.3 Rectangular Elements. 5.4 Plate with Variable Thickness. 5.5 Three-dimensional Problems. 5.6 Axisymmetric Problems. 5.6.1 Galerkins method for linear triangular axisymmetric elements. 5.7 Summary. 5.8 Exercise. Bibliography. 6 Transient Heat Conduction Analysis. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Lumped Heat Capacity System. 6.3 Numerical Solution. 6.3.1 Transient governing equations and boundary and initial conditions. 6.3.2 The Galerkin method. 6.4 One-dimensional Transient State Problem. 6.4.1 Time discretization using the Finite Difference Method (FDM). 6.4.2 Time discretization using the Finite Element Method (FEM). 6.5 Stability. 6.6 Multi-dimensional Transient Heat Conduction. 6.7 Phase Change Problems-Solidification and Melting. 6.7.1 The governing equations. 6.7.2 Enthalpy formulation. 6.8 Inverse Heat Conduction Problems. 6.8.1 One-dimensional heat conduction. 6.9 Summary. 6.10 Exercise. Bibliography. 7 Convection Heat Transfer 173 7.1 Introduction. 7.1.1 Types of fluid-motion-assisted heat transport. 7.2 Navier-Stokes Equations. 7.2.1 Conservation of mass or continuity equation. 7.2.2 Conservation of momentum. 7.2.3 Energy equation. 7.3 Non-dimensional Form of the Governing Equations. 7.3.1 Forced convection. 7.3.2 Natural convection (Buoyancy-driven convection). 7.3.3 Mixed convection. 7.4 The Transient Convection-diffusion Problem. 7.4.1 Finite element solution to convection-diffusion equation. 7.4.2 Extension to multi-dimensions. 7.5 Stability Conditions. 7.6 Characteristic-based Split (CBS) Scheme. 7.6.1 Spatial discretization. 7.6.2 Time-step calculation. 7.6.3 Boundary and initial conditions. 7.6.4 Steady and transient solution methods. 7.7 Artificial Compressibility Scheme. 7.8 Nusselt Number, Drag and Stream Function. 7.8.1 Nusselt number. 7.8.2 Drag calculation. 7.8.3 Stream function. 7.9 Mesh Convergence. 7.10 Laminar Isothermal Flow. 7.10.1 Geometry, boundary and initial conditions. 7.10.2 Solution. 7.11 Laminar Non-isothermal Flow. 7.11.1 Forced convection heat transfer. 7.11.2 Buoyancy-driven convection heat transfer. 7.11.3 Mixed convection heat transfer. 7.12 Introduction to Turbulent Flow. 7.12.1 Solution procedure and result. 7.13 Extension to Axisymmetric Problems. 7.14 Summary. 7.15 Exercise. Bibliography. 8 Convection in Porous Media. 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Generalized Porous Medium Flow Approach. 8.2.1 Non-dimensional scales. 8.2.2 Limiting cases. 8.3 Discretization Procedure. 8.3.1 Temporal discretization. 8.3.2 Spatial discretization. 8.3.3 Semi- and quasi-implicit forms. 8.4 Non-isothermal Flows. 8.5 Forced Convection. 8.6 Natural Convection. 8.6.1 Constant porosity medium. 8.7 Summary. 8.8 Exercise. Bibliography. 9 Some Examples of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Problems. 9.1 Introduction. 9.2 Isothermal Flow Problems. 9.2.1 Steady state problems. 9.2.2 Transient flow. 9.3 Non-isothermal Benchmark Flow Problem. 9.3.1 Backward-facing step. 9.4 Thermal Conduction in an Electronic Package. 9.5 Forced Convection Heat Transfer From Heat Sources. 9.6 Summary. 9.7 Exercise. Bibliography. 10 Implementation of Computer Code. 10.1 Introduction. 10.2 Preprocessing. 10.2.1 Mesh generation. 10.2.2 Linear triangular element data. 10.2.3 Element size calculation. 10.2.4 Shape functions and their derivatives. 10.2.5 Boundary normal calculation. 10.2.6 Mass matrix and mass lumping. 10.2.7 Implicit pressure or heat conduction matrix. 10.3 Main Unit. 10.3.1 Time-step calculation. 10.3.2 Element loop and assembly. 10.3.3 Updating solution. 10.3.4 Boundary conditions. 10.3.5 Monitoring steady state. 10.4 Postprocessing. 10.4.1 Interpolation of data. 10.5 Summary. Bibliography. A Greens Lemma. B Integration Formulae. B.1 Linear Triangles. B.2 Linear Tetrahedron. C Finite Element Assembly Procedure. D Simplified Form of the Navier-Stokes Equations. Index.

The characteristic‐based‐split procedure: an efficient and accurate algorithm for fluid problems

In 1995 the two senior authors of the present paper introduced a new algorithm designed to replace the Taylor–Galerkin (or Lax–Wendroff) methods, used by them so far in the solution of compressible flow problems. The new algorithm was applicable to a wide variety of situations, including fully incompressible flows and shallow water equations, as well as supersonic and hypersonic situations, and has proved to be always at least as accurate as other algorithms currently used. The algorithm is based on the solution of conservation equations of fluid mechanics to avoid any possibility of spurious solutions that may otherwise result. The main aspect of the procedure is to split the equations into two parts, (1) a part that is a set of simple scalar equations of convective–diffusion type for which it is well known that the characteristic Galerkin procedure yields an optimal solution; and (2) the part where the equations are self-adjoint and therefore discretized optimally by the Galerkin procedure. It is possible to solve both the first and second parts of the system explicitly, retaining there the time step limitations of the Taylor–Galerkin procedure. But it is also possible to use semi-implicit processes where in the first part we use a much bigger time step generally governed by the Peclet number of the system while the second part is solved implicitly and is unconditionally stable. It turns out that the characteristic-based-split (CBS) process allows equal interpolation to be used for all system variables without difficulties when the incompressible or nearly incompressible stage is reached. It is hoped that the paper will help to make the algorithm more widely available and understood by the profession and that its advantages can be widely realised. Copyright

DOUBLE-DIFFUSIVE NATURAL CONVECTION IN AN ENCLOSURE FILLED WITH FLUID-SATURATED POROUS MEDIUM: A GENERALIZED NON-DARCY APPROACH

The double-diffusive natural convective flow within a rectangular enclosure has been studied using a generalized porous medium approach. The results have been validated with the help of theoretical heat transfer results available for various porous medium flow models and also with the experimental results for double-diffusive convection in a fluid-filled rectangular cavity. The present generalized model covers the entire range from Darcy flow to free fluid flow. Numerical predictions by the model indicate that the flow pattern as well as the heat and mass transfer are profoundly influenced by the buoyancy ratio. Also non-Darcy effects on flow, heat, and mass transfer become significant when the Rayleigh or Darcy numbers are large. The Sherwood and Nusselt numbers become sensitive to bed porosity variation in the non-Darcy regime.

Characteristic‐based‐split (CBS) algorithm for incompressible flow problems with heat transfer

In our earlier papers we have presented a general algorithm for the solution of both compressible and incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations. The objective of the present work is to show the performance of this algorithm when it is used to solve thermal flow problems. Both natural and forced convection and transient problems are considered in this study. The semi‐implicit form of the algorithm has been used to deal with a variety of these problems.

Experimental investigation of the performance of a counter-flow, packed-bed mechanical cooling tower

Results are presented in terms of tower characteristics, water-outlet temperature, water to air flow rate ratio (L/G ratio) and efficiency. Tower performance decreases with an increase in the L/G ratio as is also observed in other types of cooling towers.

Adaptive mesh generation for fluid mechanics problems

In this study, we give an in depth investigation of the adaptive procedures for compressible and incompressible flow problems. Many tests have been carried out with different error indicators for different problems. These refinement procedures show that the interpolation error indicators are adequate to predict an accurate solution. Comparison between the gradient and curvature-based error indicators show that the former yields better performance in most situations. However, we found that the latter indicators predict better motion in the recirculatory and unstable regions, than the gradient-based method. Many test cases have been presented for both compressible and incompressible flow problems. In the later part of the paper, we suggest a simple way of combining the curvature/gradient indicators of different key variables and present an appropriate problem where it is applicable. A wide coverage of relevant literature has also been presented in this paper. Copyright

A new semi-implicit time stepping procedure for buoyancy driven flow in a fluid saturated porous medium

Abstract A simple semi-implicit time stepping solution procedure has been developed and tested for buoyancy driven porous media flow using the finite element method. The generalised porous medium approach has been used to solve the flow. The advantages and disadvantages of the present method are briefly discussed.

Convective heat transfer in axisymmetric porous bodies

A finite element method employing Galerkin’s approach is developed to analyze free convection heat transfer in axisymmetric fluid saturated porous bodies. The method is used to study the effect of aspect ratio and radius ratio on Nusselt number in the case of a proous cylindrical annulus. Two cases of isothermal and convective boundary conditions are considered. The Nusselt number is always found to increase with radius ratio and Rayleigh number. It exhibits a maximum when the aspect ratio is around unity; maximum shifts towards lesser aspect ratios as Rayleigh number increases. Results are compared with those in the literature, wherever available, and the agreement is found to be good.

Natural convection in porous medium‐fluid interface problems ‐ A finite element analysis by using the CBS procedure

Natural convection in porous medium‐fluid interface problems are numerically studied by using the characteristic based split (CBS) algorithm. The finite element method is used to solve the governing generalized porous medium equations. The accuracy of the scheme is estimated by comparing the present predictions for a porous cavity with those results available for the same problem. Two different types of interface problems have been considered. In the first case, the domain is vertically divided into two equal parts, while in the second problem the division is along the horizontal direction. Results obtained from the present investigation are compared extensively with existing experimental and numerical data and they are in good agreement with the available literature. Also present results are smooth along the interface and are without any jumps in the solution.