Numerical simulation of heat transfer enhancement in porous medium filled pipe

Numerical simulation has been carried out to investigate the heat transfer enhancement in the pipe filled with porous medium and the effect of the thickness (0 ≤ e ≤ 1) and permeability (10^-5 ≤ Da ≤ 10) of the porous medium on the heat transfer and pressure loss in the pipe has been studied. The results show that the flow field can be adjusted and the thickness of boundary layer can be decreased with the porous medium so the heat transfer can be enhanced in the pipe. When Da is equal to 10^-4, the fully developed Nu can be increased to as large as 5.5 times of that without the porous medium. But the pressure drop in the pipe increases rapidly with the increase of thickness or decrease of permeability of the porous medium. So the porous medium should be partly filled in the practical application. The optimum filled thickness of porous medium is about 0.6 according to our model and analysis at which the heat transfer can be enhanced greatly while the pressure drop can be controlled in an acceptable range.