Pseudo-turbulent heat flux and average gas–phase conduction during gas–solid heat transfer: flow past random fixed particle assemblies

Abstract

Fluctuations in the gas-phase velocity can contribute significantly to the total gas-phase kinetic energy even in laminar gas–solid flows as shown by Mehrabadi et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 770, 2015, pp. 210–246), and these pseudo-turbulent fluctuations can also enhance heat transfer in gas–solid flow. In this work, the pseudo-turbulent heat flux arising from temperature–velocity covariance, and average fluid-phase conduction during convective heat transfer in a gas–solid flow are quantified and modelled over a wide range of mean slip Reynolds number and solid volume fraction using particle-resolved direct numerical simulations (PR-DNS) of steady flow through a random assembly of fixed isothermal monodisperse spherical particles. A thermal self-similarity condition on the local excess temperature developed by Tenneti et al. (Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 58, 2013, pp. 471–479) is used to guarantee thermally fully developed flow. The average gas–solid heat transfer rate for this flow has been reported elsewhere by Sun et al. (Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 86, 2015, pp. 898–913). Although the mean velocity field is homogeneous, the mean temperature field in this thermally fully developed flow is inhomogeneous in the streamwise coordinate. An exponential decay model for the average bulk fluid temperature is proposed. The pseudo-turbulent heat flux that is usually neglected in two-fluid models of the average fluid temperature equation is computed using PR-DNS data. It is found that the transport term in the average fluid temperature equation corresponding to the pseudo-turbulent heat flux is significant when compared to the average gas–solid heat transfer over a significant range of solid volume fraction and mean slip Reynolds number that was simulated. For this flow set-up a gradient-diffusion model for the pseudo-turbulent heat flux is found to perform well. The Péclet number dependence of the effective thermal diffusivity implied by this model is explained using a scaling analysis. Axial conduction in the fluid phase, which is often neglected in existing one-dimensional models, is also quantified. As expected, it is found to be important only for low Péclet number flows. Using the exponential decay model for the average bulk fluid temperature, a model for average axial conduction is developed that verifies standard assumptions in the literature. These models can be used in two-fluid simulations of heat transfer in fixed beds. A budget analysis of the mean fluid temperature equation provides insight into the variation of the relative magnitude of the various terms over the parameter space.