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Numerical Investigation on heat transfer through Porous

Rectangular Fins

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction
Starting from geological flows, flows through animal tissues, fuel cells to drying technology,
thermal insulations and many more, examples of such heat flows can be seen quite frequently
in our daily life. Porosity enhances the heat transfer by introducing the convective coefficient
through the pores. A plethora of studies have been carried out to investigate the flow through
porous media, an insight of which can be seen in Yih et al.,[1]. He carried out some interesting
investigations on the effects of inertia as well as boundary on convective flow and mass transfer
in porous media. Heat transfer through a constant porosity medium is of considerable interest
in the study of porous fins, and a good number of researches has been done by Lan and
Khodadadi et al., [2].

Heat transfer through porous depends on a few important parameters like porosity, Rayleigh
number (Ra), aspect ratio , Nusselt number (Nu) and Darcy number (Da) [3]. From the work
done by Deshamukhya et al.,[4] it was seen that porosity improves the heat transfer rate up to
a certain point Figure 1 in rectangular fins attached to a wall, after which on further increase
in porosity, the heat transfer ability of the fins deteriorates. This is due to the fall in effective
thermal conductivity due to the removal of fin material at higher porosity. In porous fin along
with judicial selection of porosity, another factor that plays a pivotal role in transferring heat
is the through the fin body [5].

Darcy number which is an indicative of the permeability, thus improves the heat flow rate at
higher values permeability of the fin. If the pores are interconnected it will result in better flow
of heat [6]. Again, higher Rayleigh number improves the heat flow through fins by increasing
the temperature gradient in between the fin surface and ambient. The heat flow rate is also
proportional to the aspect ratio, which is again a very critical parameter. At higher for a
constant-length fin, as the thickness increases higher amount of heat gets dissipated from the
fin to the ambient.

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Fig. 1 geometric representation of porous fin

1.2 Porous fins


A porous medium is defined as a material that has pores (or voids) that generate a skeleton-like
structure. The material of this medium is generally kept metallic [7]. Their porosity generally
characterizes the porous media. However, other parameters by which the porous media can be
characterized, such as permeability, the tensile strength of the material, electrical conductivity,
etc.

To understand the heat transfer through porous media, one needs to explore the concept of
conjugate heat transfer. The conjugate heat transfer includes both conductive and convective
types of heat transfer. The conductive heat transfer occurs between the solid, and the convective
heat transfer occurs between the fluids. It takes place when a temperature gradient generates
between two surfaces of a solid body. The heat flows from higher temperature regions to lower
temperature regions, i.e., in the direction of decreasing temperature as they have lower
molecular energy as shown in Fig. 1

The time-dependent conductive heat transfer is governed by the following equation:

𝜕𝑇
𝜌𝐶𝑝 𝜕𝑡 = 𝛻 ∙ (𝑘𝛻𝑇) + 𝑄 (1)

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When the fluids such as air or water are heated, mass movement is caused, by the fluid moving
away from the heat source while carrying the energy with itself. This phenomenon is known
as the Convective/Convection heat transfer. It means convection can occur in fluid media
where the temperature difference exists between two surfaces of its extremities.

It occurs when particles with high heat energy in liquid or gas migrate and take the position of
particles with low heat energy. As the ideal gas law suggests, the fluid at the higher temperature
expands, becomes less dense, rises, and replaces the denser cooler fluid. Convection is used to
transport heat energy from hot regions to colder places during this process and is classified as
either ‘‘natural” (or ‘‘free”) or ‘‘forced”.

1.3 Natural Convection


Temperature variations impact the density and hence the buoyancy of the fluid, resulting in
natural convection or free convection. In natural convection, thermal expansion plays a very
crucial role. The heat is transferred by thermal expansion to the fluid surrounded by the heat
source or fluid having a higher temperature. Because the fluid velocity associated with natural
convection is low, the heat transfer coefficient is likewise low. It is caused by natural forces
such as acceleration and buoyancy effect [8].

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. Temperature contour for 0.6mm hole porous structure in (a) horizontal plate (b) vertical
plate.

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2 Chapter

2.1 Methodology

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used for the analysis of heat transfer in the porous
material created in Solidworks. Numerical simulations are performed to characterize the
conjugate heat transfer rate. Navier Stokes and energy equations were used to solve the
computational problem. This section discusses in detail the proposed methodology.

2.2 Governing equations


The physical modelling of heat transfer fluxes is based on mass, momentum, and energy
conservation principles. For an unstable flow of a compressible fluid, the continuity equation
may be written as-

𝜕𝜌
+ 𝛻 ⋅ (𝜌𝑢) = 0 (2)
𝜕𝑡

𝜕 𝜕 𝜕
With the nabla-operator, 𝛻 = (𝜕𝑥, 𝜕𝑦 ), the density 𝜌 and the velocity field u. The conservation
𝜕𝑧

of momentum is formulated as-

𝜕𝜌𝑢 2
+ 𝛻 ⋅ (𝜌𝑢𝑢) = −𝛻𝑝 + 𝜌𝑔 + 𝛻 ⋅ (2𝜇𝑒𝑓𝑓 𝑠(𝑢)) − 𝛻 (3 𝜇𝑒𝑓𝑓 (𝛻 ⋅ 𝑢)) (3)
𝜕𝑡

where p is the static pressure field, and g is the gravitational acceleration. The effective
viscosity 𝜇𝑒𝑓𝑓 is the sum of the molecular and turbulent viscosity.

The deformation (rate of strain) tensor 𝑠(𝑢) is defined as-


1
𝑠(𝑢) = 2 (𝛻𝑢 + (𝛻 ⋅ 𝑢)𝑇 ) (4)

The fluid and solid phase energy equations [8] are shown below -

𝜕𝑇
𝜌𝑓 𝐶𝑝,𝑓 ( 𝜕𝑡𝑓 + 𝑢. 𝛻𝑇𝑓 ) = 𝑘𝑓 𝛻 2 𝑇𝑓 (5)

𝜕𝑇𝑠
𝜌𝑠 𝐶𝑝,𝑠 = 𝑘𝑠 𝛻 2 𝑇𝑠 (6)
𝜕𝑡

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After volume averaging, the equations become [9],

𝑓
𝜕(𝑇𝑓 ) 𝑓
𝜌𝑓 𝐶𝑃,𝑓 ( + (𝑢) ⋅ 𝛻(𝑇𝑓 ) )
𝜕𝑡
𝑓 1 1 𝑓
= 𝑘𝑓 𝛻 2 (𝑇𝑓 ) + 𝛻 ⋅ ( ∫ 𝑘𝑓 𝑇𝑓 𝑛𝑓𝑠 ⅆ𝐴) + ( × ∫ 𝑘𝑓 𝛻𝑇𝑓 . 𝑛𝑓𝑠 ⅆ𝐴) − 𝜀𝜌𝑓 𝐶𝑝𝑓 𝛻 ⋅ (𝑢𝑇𝑓 )
𝑉 𝐴𝑓𝑠 𝑉 𝐴𝑠𝑓

(7)
𝑓
𝜕(𝑇𝑓 ) 𝑠 1 1
(1 − 𝜀)𝜌𝑠 𝐶𝑝,𝑠
𝜕𝑡
= (1 − 𝜀)𝑘𝑠 𝛻 2 (𝑇𝑓 ) + 𝛻 ⋅ (𝑉 ∫ 𝑘𝑠 𝑇𝑠 𝑛𝑓𝑠 ⅆ𝐴) + 𝑉 ∫ 𝑘𝑠 𝛻𝑇𝑠 . 𝑛𝑓𝑠 ⅆ𝐴 (8)
𝐴𝑓𝑠 𝐴𝑓𝑠

It should be noted that local non-thermal equilibrium is assumed, that is, there are distinct
temperatures for both the fluid and the solid phase, rather than one uniform average
temperature. The pore level temperature deviations present must be dealt with. The last term
on the RHS of the energy equation governs the heat transfer between the solid and fluid phases.
This is usually modelled using Newton’s Law of cooling. Here, ℎ𝑆𝑓 is the interstitial heat
transfer coefficient, and 𝐴𝑠𝑓 is the exposed surface area over which heat transfer [10] occurs-

1 𝑓
∫ 𝑘𝑓 𝛻𝑇𝑓 . 𝑛𝑓𝑠 ⅆ𝐴 = −ℎ𝑆𝑓 𝐴𝑠𝑓 {(𝑇𝑓 ) − (𝑇𝑠 )𝑠 } (9)
𝑉 𝐴𝑓𝑠

1 𝑠 𝑓
∫ 𝑘𝑠 𝛻𝑇𝑠 . 𝑛𝑓𝑠 ⅆ𝐴 = −ℎ𝑆𝑓 𝐴𝑠𝑓 {(𝑇𝑓 ) − (𝑇𝑓 ) } (10)
𝑉 𝐴𝑓𝑠

The second last term is referred to as the Tortuosity term. The concept of energy conservation
in a fluid is described in terms of specific enthalpy as-

𝜕(𝜌ℎ) 𝜕(𝜌𝑘) 𝜕𝑝
+ 𝛻 ⋅ (𝜌𝑢ℎ) + + 𝛻 ⋅ (𝜌𝑢𝑘) − 𝜕𝑡 = 𝛻 ⋅ (𝛼𝑒𝑓𝑓 𝛻ℎ) + 𝜌𝑢 ⋅ 𝑔 (11)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡

Where k= 𝑘 = |𝑢|2 ∕ 2 denotes the specific turbulent kinetic energy. Here, 𝛼𝑒𝑓𝑓 denotes the
effective thermal diffusivity. It is the sum of both turbulent and laminar thermal diffusivities,

𝜌𝜈𝑡 𝜇 𝜌𝜈𝑡 𝑘
𝛼𝑒𝑓𝑓 = + 𝑃𝑟 = + 𝐶𝑝𝑓 (12)
𝑃𝑟𝑡 𝑃𝑟𝑡

Where 𝑘𝑓 is the thermal conductivity, 𝐶𝑝 is the specific heat at constant pressure, 𝑃𝑟𝑡 is the
(turbulent) Prandtl number and 𝜈𝑡 represents the turbulent kinematic viscosity.

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The equations for the hydrodynamics and thermodynamics of the fluid flow are extended to
include energy transport due to transient heat conduction within the solid wall according to

𝜕𝑇𝑠
𝜌𝑠 𝐶𝑠 = 𝛻 ⋅ (𝑘𝑠 𝛻𝑇𝑠 ) (13)
𝜕𝑡

The above equations mainly require a turbulence closure and a related modelling approach to
calculate the turbulent transport parameters.

The energy model is worked on, which has the formula running:


⃗ (ρE + ρ)) = ∇ ⋅ (k eff ∇T − ∑ hj ̅
(ρE) + ∇ ⋅ (v Jj + (τ̅eff ⋅ ν⃗)) + sh (14)
∂t j

where 𝒌𝒆𝒇𝒇 is the effective conductivity 𝒌 + 𝒌𝒕 , where 𝒌𝒕 is the turbulent thermal conductivity,

defined according to the turbulence model being used), and 𝑱̅𝒋 is the diffusion flux of species 𝒋.
The first three terms on the right-hand side of Equation 5.1 (p. 134) represent energy transfer
due to conduction, species diffusion, and viscous dissipation, respectively. 𝒔𝒉 includes the heat
of chemical reaction, and any other volumetric heat sources defined

p v2
E= h−ρ+ (15)
2

Where sensible enthalpy h is defined for incompressible ideal gas as

p
h = ∑ Yj hj + ρ (16)
j

here, 𝒀𝒋 is the mass fraction of species 𝒋 and

T
hj = ∫ Cp,j ⅆT (17)
Tref

The value used for Tref in the sensible enthalpy calculation depends on the solver and models
in use. For the pressure-based solver Tref is 298.15 K except for PDF models in which case Tref
is a user input for the species.

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2.3 Grid independency test


Mesh sensitive test is used to ensure that the grid size used in the study is computationally less
expensive. In this study, simulation was performed with three grid sizes 0.8 mm, 0.9 mm, and
1 mm cases. The number of elements for all five meshed structures is shown in the table below.
From Table 1, it is observed that the 1 mm grid size is the least computationally expensive.

When we plotted the graph for grid size vs. total heat transfer for the above grid sizes, it is
witnessed that the results are almost the same for grid sizes of 0.8 mm, 0.9 mm, and 1 mm as
shown in Table 1. So, we selected the grid size, which was the least expensive computationally,
that was 1 mm of grid size.

Table 1. Variation of number of elements with change in grid size.

Hole size 0.8mm 0.9mm 1mm


0.6mm hole 358662 315878 302769
1.4mm hole 473849 426848 407374
No hole 384785 354648 328374

no hole 0.6mm hole1.4mm hole 1.4mm hole


350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0.08 0.09 0.1

Fig. 3 heat transfer rate(W/mK) on y-axis Vs grid size(mm) on x-axis.

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2.4 Geometry
The porous structure is identical to an FCC lattice with the pores in range of below 10 mm.
The fluid domain considered is a 20/20 mm square, Fig 4(c). to see the behaviours of fluid air
around the porous structure and look for the temperature drop. The fin structure is the solid
domain Fig 4(a). The porous structure have pores in through which the air flows. This porous
fluid domain is displayed in Fig 4(b).

(a) (b)

(c)
Fig 4. The 3D CAD Model of the Porous Structure with dimensions in computation domain (a)
Base = 7.5 * 7.5 * 6 mm, pore size = 2 mm, hole size = 1 mm (b) fluid domain 7.5*7.5*6 mm (c)
total fluid domain 20*20*20 mm

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2.5 Meshing
Grid independence test is done with average heat transfer rate. Mesh sizing of 0.1 mm for the
porous fin, Fig 5. named selection is given. Inflation layer with 4 layers and 0.275 percentage
transition with 1.2 growth rate across the boundary of fin and fluid domain is adapted to capture
the gradient in temperature. Skewness in range of 0.13~0.38, Fig 6. and orthogonal quality
closer to 1 in range of 0.63~0.88, Fig 7. is maintained for a valid grid generation.

Fig. 5. Meshed model of solid fin domain

Fig. 6. mesh metric representation of skewness for grid generation of mathematical model

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Fig. 7. mesh metric representation of orthogonal quality for grid generation of mathematical
model

2.6 Setup:
The Fluid domain is incompressible ideal gas and the solid domain is Concreate. The material
Properties are tabulated in the Table 3. During natural convection the atmospheric pressure
differences is the only driving force in the absence of gravity noted in Table 2. The initial
condition of the heat domain, solid plate is 300K.

Table 2. Boundary conditions of simulation

Fluid inlet type Pressure inlet-zero-gauge pressure

Fluid outlet type Pressure outlet

Aluminium wall 100oC

Table 3. Material properties of aluminium and concreate

Solid domain Aluminium


Density (Kg/m3) 2719
Specific heat (J/Kg-K) 871
Thermal Conductivity (W/m-K) 202.4
Fluid domain Air
Density (Kg/m3) Incompressible ideal gas
Specific heat (J/Kg-K) 1006.3
Thermal Conductivity (W/m-K) 0.0242
Viscosity (Kg/m-s) 1.789*10-5

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2.7 Solver:
The pressure-based solver employs an algorithm, which belongs to a general class of methods
called the projection method [11]. In the projection method, wherein the constraint of mass
conservation (continuity) of the velocity field is achieved by solving a pressure (or pressure
correction) equation. The pressure equation is derived from the continuity and the momentum
equations in such away that the velocity field, corrected by the pressure, satisfies the continuity.
Since the governing equations are nonlinear and coupled to one another, the solution process
involves iterations wherein the entire set of governing equations is solved repeatedly until the
solution converges. Two pressure-based solver algorithms are available in ANSYS Fluent. A
segregated algorithm, and a coupled algorithm. These two approaches are discussed in the
sections below.

Fig.8. Flow chart of Pressure based coupled algorithm

The pressure-based coupled algorithm solves a coupled system of equations comprising the
momentum equations and the pressure-based continuity equation. Thus, in the coupled
algorithm, Steps 2 and 3 in the segregated solution algorithm are replaced by a single step in
which the coupled system of equations are solved. The remaining equations are solved in a
decoupled fashion as in the segregated algorithm.

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Since the momentum and continuity equations are solved in a closely coupled manner, the rate
of solution convergence significantly improves when compared to the segregated algorithm.
However, the memory requirement increases by 1.5 – 2 times that of the segregated algorithm
since the discrete system of all momentum and pressure-based continuity equations must be
stored in the memory when solving for the velocity and pressure fields (rather than just a single
equation, as is the case with the segregated algorithm).

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 9. Temperature contour for (a) 0.6mm pore (b) 1.4mm pore (c) no hole with surrounding
temperature at 25o and plate at -20o .

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When you model natural convection inside a closed domain, the solution will depend on the
mass inside the domain. Since this mass will not be known unless the density is known, you
must model the flow in one of the following ways:

Perform a transient calculation. In this approach, the initial density will be computed from the
initial pressure and temperature, so the initial mass is known. As the solution progresses over
time, this mass will be properly conserved. If the temperature differences in your domain are
large, you must follow this approach.

The thing is, in reality the closed domain is not air-tight. So the mass and density don't have to
be conserved. In fact, it would be wrong.

The advantages of the numerical techniques over experimental and analytical techniques are
many folds. First, these techniques are cost-effective in comparison to experimental work.
Secondly, the solution process demands less computational effort compared to the analytical
techniques. Further, the ability to simulate both realistic and idealized conditions makes them
a good choice in heat transfer problems. Moreover, to validate the results obtained from
analytical techniques, it is a good practice to adopt numerical schemes.

2.8 Validation and Calculations:


The heat transfer coefficient is given by-
𝑞
ℎ=𝐴 (18)
𝑠 (𝑇1 −𝑇2 )

here, h is the average surface heat transfer coefficient, q is the heat transfer rate, 𝐴𝑠 is the area
of heat transferring surface, 𝑇1 is the average surface temperature (o C). The dependence of h
on all the above-mentioned parameters is generally expressed in terms of non-dimensional
groups, as follows,
𝑛
ℎ𝐿 𝑔𝐿3 𝛽𝛥𝑇 𝜇𝐶𝑝
= 𝐴 [{ }{ }] (19)
𝑘 𝜈2 𝑘

ℎ𝐿
here, is called the Nusselt Number (Nu),
𝑘

𝑔𝐿3 𝛽𝛥𝑇
is called the Grashoff Number (Gr) and,
𝜈2

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𝜇𝐶𝑝
is called the Prandtl Number (𝑃𝑟).
𝑘

A and n are constants depending on the shape and orientation of the heat transferring surface.
L is a characteristic dimension of surface,
k is the thermal conductivity of fluid,
𝜈 is the kinematic viscosity of fluid,
𝜇 is the dynamic viscosity of fluid,
𝐶𝑝 is the specific heat of fluid,
𝛽 represents a fluid’s coefficient of volumetric expansion,
1
For gases, 𝛽 = 𝑇 𝑘 −1 , where 𝑇𝑓 = mean film temperature = (𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑎 )/2
𝑓 +273

𝑔 is the acceleration due to gravity at the place of experiment.

𝛥𝑇 = 𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑎

We calculated the heat transfer rate using the formula shown in the above equation and found
that the results were quite matching with the ones obtained from the computational simulation
done on ANSYS 2019 R3.

Governing dimensionless parameter for free convection-


𝑔𝛽(𝑇𝑠 −𝑇∞ )𝐿3
Rayleigh number = Grashoff number*Prandtl number = 𝜈𝛼

Here L = characteristics length = surface area of plate/ perimeter of plate


For free convection Rayleigh number (Ra) = 0.54*Ra^0.25
̅̅̅̅
𝑁𝑢𝐾
We also know that average heat transfer coefficient (ℎ̃) = 𝐿

Now for Newton’s law of cooling = q/A = ℎ̃𝛥𝑇


On calculating the value of heat transfer per unit surface area through the theoretical formula
we get
Error percentage: the error percentage between theoretically calculated value and numerically
generated results is (9.54 ~ 10) %

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3500
Heat transfer per unit surface area (W/mK)

1500
0 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.6 1 1.4
Porosity

Numerical theoretical

Fig 10. Theoretical Vs Numerical average heat transfer rate per unit area report with increase
in porosity.

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3 Chapter

3.1 Results and discussion

The 3D model of the porous structure was created using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) in
SOLIDWORKS 2016, as shown in Fig. 2. Fifteen different structures were modelled, with all
porous structures having the same 7.5 * 7.5 mm base but having a different size of holes in the
structures.

‘Pores’ are the large spherical void present inside the structures, while ‘Holes’ are voids on the
intersection point of the pores. Broadly, three different structures of height 5 mm, 6 mm, and
7.5 mm with fixed pore diameter of 1mm and varied hole diameters were modelled. The
enclosure is initially patched to be containing only air at a pressure of 101325 Pa, and a
temperature of 253 K. Initial boundary conditions are given as 27 oC at the bottom of porous
media, i.e., known as heat domain (refer Fig. 9.).

Conjugate heat transfer study is performed for both free as well as forced convection. For
performing the free convective heat transfer, a porous structure is kept inside a fluid domain.
A temperature of 27 oC was given at the bottom of the structure, known as the heat domain.
Fig. 9(c) represents the contours of temperature. It is observed that the airflow in horizontal
orientation is symmetrical due to the effect of buoyancy in the vertically downward direction,
while in a vertical orientation, the profile of airflow is not symmetrical. Fig. 2 (a) and (b)
illustrate the Velocity Contour and the Vector Representation of the velocity for both model
orientations. Vector contour clearly represents the heat transfer occurring through the holes and
pores of the porous structures.

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(a)

(b)
Fig. 10. Contours showing the flow of air and heat transfer passing through the pores in forced
convection for an inlet velocity of 1 m/s (a) Velocity vector in horizontal fins (b) Velocity
contour in vertical fins.

Three different kinds of structures were made in Solidworks 2016, having differences in
porosities. The porosity of the structures was varied by changing the hole and pore sizes in
the structure.

Table.4 shows the average heat flux from the heat domain of the porous structures. The rise of
heat flux explains the heat transfer occurring in that porous structure after giving a temperature
of 100◦C in the heat domain. Here in each case, the vertical plate has more heat transfer than
the horizontal plate, as can be interpreted from the graph shown in Fig. 3. The vertical plate is
only in the direction of gravity, and fluid motion is only caused due to buoyancy.

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In contrast, in the horizontal plate, there is a decrease in buoyancy which then reduces heat
reduces transfer, and in each case, the heat transfer is increased with an increase in the
percentage of holes which ultimately increases the porosity. The structure with no holes shows
exceptionally different behaviour than the structures having holes. It is due to the geometry of
its structure because convective heat transfer supresses and conductive heat transfer increases.

Table 4. Heat transfer rate with different orientations with different grid sizes.
Horizontal Vertical
0.6 mm hole 1831.142 2023.088
1.4 mm hole 3056.96 3328.69
No hole 2700.104 2732.104

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4 Chapter

4.1 Conclusion
Computational Fluid Dynamics was utilized to analyse the rate of heat transfer in the
computational domain. The results obtained reveal the influence of structural parameters on
heat transfer.

From the analysis performed for free natural convections, it can be concluded that, the vertical
plate has more heat transfer than the horizontal one because the vertical plate is in the direction
of gravity, so due to buoyancy, the heat transfer is more.

Therefore using porous wall structures is a viable solution to have a good gradient of
temperature from the surroundings just with modifying the physical structure of bricks/concrete
used.

In the case of the horizontal plate, there is a decrease in buoyancy due to absence of direct
impact of gravity which then ultimately reduces the heat transfer when compared to that across
vertical fins shown in table below-

Table 5. Percentage decrease in heat transfer per unit surface area in horizontal plate

Porous structure type % decrease in heat transfer per unit surface area in horizontal
plate
0.6mm hole 9.48
1.4mm hole 8.16
No hole 1.12

We also observe that in both of the cases, heat transfer increases with increase of pore diameter
in the porous structure as in Table 5.This is because heat transfer depends on the porosity of
the structure; with increasing the pore, porosity increases, and heat transfer increases.

Future scope includes the analysis of similar porous structures used in different fields like
biomedical materials, power electronics, polymers, with respect to the sustainability of porous
materials.

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References
[1] N. Amanifard, M. Borji, A.K. Haghi, Heat transfer in porous media, Braz. J. Chem. Eng.
24 (2) (2007) 223–232.

[2] D.D. Ganji, S.H.H. Kachapi, in: Application of Nonlinear Systems in Nanomechanics and
Nanofluids, Elsevier, 2015, pp. 271–316, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/B978-0-323-35237-
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