Numerical Investigation of Heat Transfer Enhancement Inside the Pipes Filled With Radial Pore-Size Gradient Porous Materials

The gradient porous materials (GPMs)-filled pipe structure has been proved to be effective in improving the heat transfer ability and reducing pressure drop of fluid. A GPMs-filled pipe structure in which radial pore-size gradient increased nonlinearly has been proposed. The field synergy theory and trade off analysis on the efficiency of integrated heat transfer has been accomplished based on performance evaluation criteria (PEC). It was found that the ability of heat transfer was enhanced considerably, based on the pipe structure, in which the pore-size of porous materials increased as a parabolic opening up. The flow resistance was the lowest and the integrated heat transfer performance was the highest when radial pore-size gradient increasing as a parabolic opening down.