Numerical simulation on heat transfer inside rotating porous disk subjected to local heat flux

Abstract

Numerical simulation was carried out to study the centrifugally-driven flow and heat transfer inside rotating metallic porous disk subjected to local heat flux. The effects of rotational speed, solid thermal conductivity and porosity on heat transfer were analyzed. The thermal transport coefficient, defined as the ratio of local heat flux to maximum temperature difference on the disk, was introduced to evaluate the thermal transport capacity in rotating porous disk. For convenience, the conjugation between convective heat transfer inside the rotating porous disk and convective heat transfer over the rotating disk surface was decoupled in the present study. Firstly, the convective heat transfer over the free rotating disk surface was investigated individually to determine the heat transfer coefficient over the disk surface to the ambient air. Then the convective heat transfer over a rotating disk surface was treated as the thermal boundary condition for the computation of convective heat transfer inside rotating porous disk. Under the present research conditions, the results show that the centrifugally-driven flow is enhanced significantly with the increase of rotational speed. Consequently, the maximum temperature on the disk surface is decreased and the temperature distribution tends to be uniform. The thermal transport capacity in rotating porous disk is also enhanced with the increase of solid thermal conductivity or the decrease of solid porosity. In the rotating porous disk, the solid phase heat transfer is clearly the dominant mode of heat transport and the fluid phase makes an incremental contribution to the total heat transfer.