Forced convection and entropy generation past a series of porous bodies with internal heat generation

Anumerical investigation of forced convective heat transfer and entropy generation characteristics around a series of heat-generating permeable bodies, placed in a confined domain, has been carried out in the present study. Considering air as an operating media, simulations have been performed for the range of Reynolds number, Re = 10 - 40 andDarcy number, Da = 10(-6) - 10(-2). The simulations have been carried out by using the finite volume method and implementing the DarcyBrinkman-Forchheimer model to solve the momentum equations in the porous domain. The local thermal equilibrium model (LTE) is adopted to model the thermal behavior between the solid and fluid phases of the porous media. It is observed that the heat transfer rates from the bodies to the clear fluid domain increase with an increase in either Re or Da. The flow from the preceding body modifies the heat transfer characteristics of the succeeding body. An increased amount of fluid flow results in the tempering of recirculation zones while decreasing the transverse spread of isotherms. The total entropy generation increases with an increase in Re or Da. However, an increment in either of these parameters results in the increased dominance of fluid friction irreversibilities over heat transfer irreversibilities. Observed findings could be helpful to understand, design, and operate a similar porous multibody embedded system. One very common example of a such system is the cooling of electronic chips which may be relevant for high-performance computing applications.

Automated summary

A numerical investigation was conducted on forced convective heat transfer and entropy generation around a series of heat-generating permeable bodies in a confined domain. Results showed that an increase in Reynolds and Darcy numbers led to higher heat transfer rates and total entropy generation, with fluid friction irreversibilities becoming more dominant over heat transfer irreversibilities.