Numerical study of forced convection in a vertical channel filled with heat-generating porous medium

Steady laminar non-Darcian forced convection in a vertical channel filled with heat-generating porous medium is studied numerically by using the local thermal non-equilibrium model. The heat source generated by solid framework is uniform and kept constant; and the temperature of vertical walls is kept at constant temperature T₀. The flow inside porous medium is modelled by using Forchheimer-Brinkman extended Darcy model. The effects of Reynolds number (0.5 ≤ Re ≤ 50), effective fluid-to-solid thermal conductivity ratio Γ (0.001 ≤ Γ ≤ 1.0) and Darcy number (10³ ≤ Da ≤ 10^-5) are analyzed in detail. It is found that, the effects of Re, γ and Da are remarkable; at low values of Re and γ, and at high value of Da, the effect of local thermal non-equilibrium is significant and the local thermal non-equilibrium model should be adopted for predicting the heat transfer characteristics exactly.