The interaction of thermal nonequilibrium and heterogeneous conductivity effects in forced convection in layered porous channels

Forced convection in a parallel plate channel filled with a porous medium, consisting of two layers with the same porosity and permeability but with d ifferent solid conductivity, and saturated by a single fluid, is analyzed u sing a two-temperature model. It is found that the effect of local thermal nonequilibrium is particularly significant when the solid conductivity in e ach layer is greater than the fluid conductivity, and in these circumstance s the effect is to reduce the Nusselt number defined in terms of the overal l effective thermal conductivity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.