International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 3822–3825

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Study of mixed convection in an annular vertical cylinder filled with saturated

porous medium, using thermal non-equilibrium model
N.J. Salman Ahmed a,⇑, Irfan Anjum Badruddin a, Jeevan Kanesan b, Z.A. Zainal c, K.S. Nazim Ahamed d
a
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
b
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
c
School of Mechanical Engineering, University Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Malaysia
d
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Rural Engineering College, Hulkoti 582205, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present study deals with numerical investigation of effects of different parameters on enhancement
Received 13 December 2010 or retardation of the heat transfer rate in an annular vertical cylinder filled with saturated porous med-
Received in revised form 17 April 2011 ium. The heat transfer is assumed to take place by mixed convection mode. The thermal non-equilibrium
Available online 18 May 2011
approach is considered. The inner surface of the annular cylinder is maintained at constant wall temper-
ature whereas the outer surface remains at ambient temperature. The governing partial differential equa-
Keywords: tions are solved using finite element method. The results are discussed for the effects of Peclet number,
Porous media
interphase heat transfer co-efficient and thermal conductivity ratio.
Vertical annular cylinder
Mixed convection
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Aiding flow
Opposing flow
Finite element method
Thermal non-equilibrium model

1. Introduction TNE approach to handle heat transfer problems in various geome-

During the last few years the mixed convection (combined
natural and forced convection) flow in porous medium (PM) has
become a topic of interest for many researchers due to its wide
applications in many areas of science and engineering such as heat
exchangers, cooling of nuclear reactors during emergency shut-
down, cooling of electronic components, solar energy storage cells
exposed to the wind current and many more. A deep insight to the
various aspects of convection in PM is provided by Nield and Bejan
[18], Vafai [19], Pop and Ingham [20] and Ingham and Pop [21]. In
most of the engineering processes, the fluid and solid phases are
not in thermal equilibrium in which case separate energy equa-
tions need to be considered for solid and fluid phases. Substantial
amount of work has been carried out to analyze the phenomenon
of heat transfer in PM. Badruddin et al. [1] studied the heat transfer
by radiation and natural convection phenomenon in case of verti-
cal annulus and also heat transfer analysis in conical cylinder has
been carried out by applying the thermal equilibrium approach
by Salman Ahmed et al. [2]. The thermal non-equilibrium (TNE)
modeling is yet to be explored for many issues related to the heat
transfer in PM. A brief outline of the previous works on the use of
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 0164958089; fax: +60 3 79675317.
E-mail address: asalman02@gmail.com (N.J. Salman Ahmed).
tries involving PM is presented here.
Lai et al. [3] investigated the aiding and opposing mixed convec-
tion in a vertical porous layer with a finite wall heat source. They
found that in the case of aiding mixed convection flow, the main
flow separated from the cold wall and a recirculatory secondary
flow existed in a region away from the heat source. The problem
of mixed convection along an isothermal vertical plate in porous
media with uniform surface injection or suction was studied by
Hooper et al. [4], using finite difference method (FDM). Chang
and Chang [5] analyzed non-Darcian mixed convection in a vertical
tube partially filled with PM, using the SIMPLEC algorithm. The
diffusion and convection were handled by a hybrid scheme. The
velocity and temperature distributions, local Nusselt number, local
friction coefficient, pressure drop, and entrance length were
obtained under various parameters, such as different thicknesses
of PM, Darcy number and Grashof number. Similar problem was
handled by Aldoss et al. [6] who used the FDM to study the effects
of various parameters such as the heating condition at the wall, the
strength of mixed convection, the inertia and the boundary effect
(the non-Darcian effect) and the cylinder curvature effect, on the
heat transfer. Pop and Na [7] studied the Darcian mixed convection
flow along a vertical slender circular cylinder with variable surface
heat flux embedded in a fluid-porous medium, using the Keller box
method. Zhou and Lai [8] studied aiding and opposing mixed
convection from a cylinder embedded in a saturated PM, using

0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2011.05.001
 N.J. Salman Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 3822–3825 3823

Nomenclature

A aspect ratio = Ht/L T; T dimensional (°C) and non-dimensional temperature,

cp specific heat (J/kg °C) respectively
g gravitational acceleration (m/s2) u, w velocity in r and z directions, respectively (m/s)
H interphase heat transfer co efficient
Ht height of cylinder (m) Greek symbols
k thermal conductivity (W/m °C) a thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
K permeability of the porous medium (m2) b coefficient of thermal expansion (1/°C)
Kr thermal conductivity ratio bR absorption coefficient (1/m)
L ro  ri (m) q density (kg/m3)
Nu average Nusselt number v coefficient of kinematic viscosity
Nuf nusselt number for fluid r Stephan Boltzmann constant
Nus Nusselt number for solid w stream function
Nut total Nusselt number w non-dimensional stream function
Pe Peclet number
qr radiation flux (W/m2) Subscripts
r, z cylindrical co-ordinates (m) h hot
r; z non-dimensional co-ordinates 1 conditions at outer radius
Ra Rayleigh number i inner
Rd radiation parameter o outer

FDM. Mixed convection in a horizontal annulus filled with a and z represent the radial and vertical directions, respectively, of
uniform fluid-saturated PM in the presence of internal heat gener- the annulus. The inner wall of the annulus is heated to the constant
ation was investigated by Khanafer and Chamkha [9], using a finite temperature Tw whereas the outer wall is maintained at the con-
element method (FEM) based on the Galerkin method of weighted stant temperature T1, such that Tw > T1.
residuals. The effects of internal Rayleigh number, Darcy number,
annulus gap and Richardson number on the flow and heat transfer 2.1. Governing equations and boundary conditions
characteristics were analyzed.
Two-dimensional steady mixed convection in a vertical porous The governing equations for mixed convection in an annular
layer was investigated numerically by Saeid [10] using thermal cylinder can be written as:
non-equilibrium (TNE) model. The influences of thermal conductiv- Momentum equation
ity ratio and heat transfer coefficient on the average Nusselt num-
@w @u gKb @T
ber were studied. In the extended study Saeid and Pop [11], a  ¼ ð1Þ
@r @z m @r
vertical surface embedded in a fluid-saturated PM, on which two
isolated thermal sources were located, was considered. The thermal Energy equation for fluid
sources were taken as long planar sources of finite height and the     !
@T f @T f 1 @ @T f @2T f
resulting two-dimensional flow was analyzed using the finite ðqcp Þf u þw ¼ ukf r þ 2 þ hðT s  T f Þ ð2Þ
volume method (FVM), both for mixed aiding and mixed opposing @r @z r @r @r @z
flows. Subsequently, Saeid [12] applied the TNE model to study the
Energy equation for solid
free convection from a horizontal cylinder immersed in PM, using
an implicit FDM based on Keller box algorithm. Duwairi et al. [13]
studied the effects of oscillating plate temperature on transient
mixed convection heat transfer from a porous vertical surface
embedded in a saturated porous medium with internal heat
generation or absorption, using the Galerkine FEM. Steady, mixed
convection boundary layer flow about a horizontal, isothermal
circular cylinder embedded in a bidisperse PM was theoretically
studied by Kumari and Pop [14], using the Keller-box method. Very
recently, an experimental investigation of mixed convection heat
transfer in a vertical duct filled with metallic porous structures
has been reported by Venugopal et al. [15]. The porous insert used
in the study consisted of a stack of metallic perforated plates filled
inside the duct. The TNE model was applied for free convection in
PM fixed in a vertical annular cylinder [16] and also in a square
porous cavity by Badruddin et al. [17]. However, the TNE approach
to handle mixed convection problem in PM embedded in annular
vertical cylinder has not been reported so far as per the author’s
knowledge.

2. Physical model

Consider the vertical annular cylinder saturated with PM with

inner radius ri and outer radius ro as shown in the Fig. 1. Let r Fig. 1. Nusselt number variations with respect to Kr and Pe.
3824 N.J. Salman Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 3822–3825

  !
1 @ @T s @2T s 3. Results and discussion
ð1  uÞks r þ 2
r @r @r @z
Fig. 1 depicts the average Nusselt number variations of aiding
1 @ flow with respect to thermal conductivity ratio (Kr) and Peclet
¼ hðT s  T f Þ þ ð1  uÞ ðrqr Þ ð3Þ
r @r number (Pe), for Ra = 100, Rr = 2, H = 1, Ar = 5 and Rd = 0.5. The Kr
Corresponding boundary conditions are: is varied from 0 to 50 for Pe values 0.1, 10 and 50. It is obvious from
the figure that the fluid Nusselt number (Nuf ) remains almost con-
At r ¼ r i ; Tf ¼ Ts ¼ Tw u¼0 ð4aÞ stant with respect to Kr, and slightly decreases with increase in Pe.
At r ¼ r o ; T f ¼ T s ¼ T w u ¼ 0 ð4bÞ However the solid Nusselt number (Nus ) increases with increase in
At z ¼ 0 u ¼ 0 w ¼ V o ðfor aiding flowÞ ð4cÞ Kr; this trend may be attributed to enhanced heat transfer rate in
At z ¼ Ht u ¼ 0 w ¼ V o ðfor opposing flowÞ ð4dÞ the solid PM, noticeably when Kr increases from 0 to 10.
The Nus decreases with increase in Pe, which indicates decreased
Non-dimensionalising the various parameters as follows: heat transfer rate in the solid phase of PM with increase in Pe. It may
r z ðT  T 0 Þ ðT w  T 1 Þ be noted that variation of Nus with respect to Pe is negligible for
r¼ ; z¼ ; T¼ where T 0 ¼ ; very low values of Kr. The total Nusselt number (Nut ), and hence
Lref Lref ðT w  T 1 Þ 2
the total heat transfer rate decreases with the increase in Kr, the
4rn2 T 31 w HLref decrease is sharp when Kr < 8 and only marginal beyond that.
Rd ¼ ; w¼ ; H¼
bR K s a/Lref /kf Total Nut follows the same trend with Pe as well; but the effect
/kf V o Lref gbK DTLref is negligible at Kr < 5 .
c¼ ; Pe ¼ ; Ra ¼
Fig. 2 demonstrates the effect of H and Pe on Nut of aiding flow.
ð1  /Þks /a /maf
The figure is obtained for the values Ra = 100, Rr = 2, Kr = 1, Ar = 5
ð5Þ
and Rd = 0.5. With increase in H, Nuf decreases, and Nus and Nut
Substitution of dimensionless parameters gives the following are found to increase. However, Nuf ; Nus and Nut decrease with
non-dimensional coupled partial differential equations: increase in Pe, and the decrease in Nus is negligible beyond
Momentum equation Pe = 30. The variation in Nus with respect to H is noticeable at
  low values of Pe but variation goes on diminishing as the value
@2w 1 @ @w rRa @T f
þ r ¼ ð6Þ of Pe increases. Nut is not much affected by variation in H as it
@z2 r @r @r Pe @r can be seen that the lines corresponding to H = 0.1, 10 and 100
Energy equation for fluid almost overlap each other.
" #   ! ! Fig. 3 reveals the effects of Kr and Pe on Nuf ; Nus and Nut in the
@w @T f @w @T f 1 @ 4Rd @T f @2T f case of opposing flow in PM, for Ra = 100, Rr = 2, H = 1, Ar = 5 and
Pe  ¼ 1þ r þ 2
@r @z @z @r r @r 3 @r @z Rd = 0.5. Similar to the case of aiding flow, in this case too, it can
be seen that Nuf remains constant with change in Kr. For a given
þ HðT s  T f Þ ð7Þ
value of Kr, Nus increases with increase in Pe. It may be noted that
Energy equation for solid the fluid Nusselt number of aiding flow decreases with respect to
  ! ! increase in Pe as discussed in Fig. 1. TheNus and Nut of opposing
1 @ 4Rd @T s @2T s flow increases with increase in Pe. As Kr increases, the difference
1þ r þ 2 ¼ HcðT s  T f Þ ð8Þ
r @r 3 @r @z in Nus and Nut increases with increase of Pe.
Fig. 4 shows the effects of H and Pe on Nuf ; Nus and Nut when
The modified boundary conditions will be buoyancy and free stream flow are opposing each other. The plots
1 are obtained for Ra = 100, Rr = 2, Kr = 1, Ar = 5 and Rd = 0.5. It is
At r ¼ r i w ¼ 0 Tf ¼ Ts ¼ ; ð9aÞ seen that Nuf initially increases with increase in Pe until a point
2
and then starts declining. The increase and decrease in Nuf with
1 respect to Pe are substantial at very low values of H. It may also
At r ¼ r 0 ; w ¼ 0; Tf ¼ Ts ¼  ð9bÞ be noted that the low values of H leads to strong TNE among the
2
The heat transfer rate is predicted in terms of the Nusselt num-
ber at hot wall of the annulus by using the relations:
For fluid,
Z z
1 @T f
Nuf ¼ dz ð10Þ
z 0 @r r¼ri;ro
For solid,
Z z 
1 4 @T s
Nus ¼  1 þ Rd dz ð11Þ
z 0 3 @r r¼ri;ro
The total Nusselt number is given by the relation
  Z z(    )
1 1 @T f 4 @T s
Nut ¼  c dzþ 1þ Rd dz ð12Þ
c þ1 z 0 @rr¼ri;ro 3 @r r¼ri;ro

The non-dimensional equations are converted into matrix form of

equations by using finite element method (FEM). The resulting
matrix form of equations are then solved simultaneously to obtain
the solution variables i.e. fluid temperature, solid temperature and
the stream function inside the porous medium. Fig. 2. Nusselt number variations with respect to Pe and H.
 N.J. Salman Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 3822–3825
Fig. 3. Average Nusselt number for opposing flow with respect to Kr and Pe.
Fig. 4. Average Nusselt number variation for opposing flow with respect to Pe and
H.
solid and fluid phases of the PM. At lower values of H, Nus is not
much affected by change in Pe. However, at higher values H, Nus
increases with increase in Pe up to certain value and declines
thereafter. Similar trend is seen for Nut as it increases initially with
increase in H and then starts declining. The difference between two
values of Nut with respect to variation in H is noticeable only at
higher values of Pe.
4. Conclusion
The mixed convection in a vertical annular cylinder saturated
with PM has been analyzed numerically using TNE approach.
The results indicate that the TNE approach gives more realistic
predictions of the heat transfer rate and fluid flow behavior in
the PM confined in the annular cylinder. It has been shown that
Nuf remains constant with change in Kr in the case of aiding flow.
3825
As Pe increases Nuf decreases slightly and Nus increases with in-
crease in Kr. The results also indicate that there is linear incre-
ments in Nuf ; Nus and Nut for increase in Rr for various values
of Pe. The difference between Nuf and Nus increases with increase
in Rr, indicating the prevalence of the TNE between the phases.
The effect of H is dissimilar for Nuf and Nus ; for a given value of
Pe, the heat transfer rate in fluid decreases with increase in the H
whereas the heat transfer rate for solid and total Nusselt number
increases with increase in H. The influence of the Ar on Nuf and
Nus was found to have differing trends, as the heat transfer rate in-
creases slightly for solid while it is negligible for fluid.. In case of
opposing flow it is found that the heat transfer rate increases with
increase in Pe.
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