DOUBLE DIFFUSIVE FREE CONVECTION IN A PACKED BED SQUARE ENCLOSURE BY USING LOCAL THERMAL NON-EQUILIBRIUM (LTNE) MODEL

Abstract

In the present study, free convection heat and mass transfer of fluid in a square packed bed enclosure is numerically investigated. For the considered geometrical shape, the left vertical wall of enclosure was assumed to be kept at high temperature and concentration while the opposite wall was kept at low temperature and concentration with insulating both the top and bottom walls of enclosure. The Brinkman– Forchheimer extended Darcy model was used to solve the momentum equations, while the energy equations for fluid and solid phases were solved by using the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model.Computations are performed for a range of the Darcy number from 10-5 to 10-1, the porosity from 0.5 to 0.9, and buoyancy ratio from -15 to 15. The results showed that both the buoyancy ratio and the packed bed characteristics have significant effect on each one of the flow field, heat transfer and mass transfer.