NUMERICAL STUDY OF FORCED-CONVECTION IN A PARTIALLY POROUS CHANNEL WITH DISCRETE HEAT-SOURCES

A numerical study was performed to analyze steady laminar forced convection in a channel partially filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium and containing discrete heat sources on the bottom wall. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer results are reported for the configuration in which the porous layers are located above the heat sources while the rest of the channel is nonporous. The flow in the porous medium was modeled using the Brinkman-Forchheimer extended Darcy model. Parametric studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of variable heat source spacing and heat source width on hear transfer enhancement and pressure drop in the channel. The results indicate that when the heat source spacing was increased within the range considered, there was a negligible change in heat transfer enhancement while the pressure drop decreased significantly. When the heat source width was decreased, there was a moderate increase in hear transfer enhancement and a significant decrease in pressure drop.