ENHANCED HEAT-TRANSFER IN ROUND TUBES WITH POROUS INSERTS

The modeling and numerical simulation studies of fluid flow and enhanc ed heat transfer in round tubes filled with rolled copper mesh are des cribed in this paper. The tubes were subjected to uniform heat flux, a nd water was used as the energy transport fluid. The numerical solutio n was obtained by a finite difference code developed in this investiga tion. The fluid flow was modeled by a modified Ergun-Forchheimer-Brink man equation. The energy transfer was based on a single equation model ; i.e., local thermal equilibrium between the solid and fluid phases. Variations of the local Nusselt number and local heat transfer coeffic ient were obtained accurately by the use of nonuniform grid size in th e radial direction in the numerical simulations. The numerical results obtained were compared with the experimental results obtained by the Experimental Facilities Division at Argonne National Laboratory, and t he two were in good agreement.