Special issue on heat and mass transfer in porous media

Abstract

Flows and transport through porous media represent one of the most active areas of research in contemporary energy engineering. Intensive research in the 1980s and 1990s has established the fundamental principles, especially with regard to convective heat and mass transfer through fluid saturated porous media. Today, the field expands through a growing number of applications on the technological frontier. Examples range from the miniaturization of heat exchangers, to flow and transport in living tissues. Classical applications from energy and civil engineering lend the field a breadth and stability that make it indispensable in present and future engineering. The current state of research and education in this field formed the subject of the international summer school on ‘Heat Transfer in Porous Media’, which was held on 25 July–3 August 2001 in Neptun, Romania, under the auspices of the Ovidius University, Constanta. Well-known professors were invited to lecture to an international audience of researchers and academics from Bulgaria, France, Korea, Malaysia, Moldova, Romania, The Netherlands, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States. The lecturers were Profs. A. C. Baytas, A. Bejan, I. Dincer, J. Hristov, D. B. Ingham, S. Kimura, S. Lorente, E. Mamut, I. Pop, D. A. S. Rees, and P. Vadasz. A representative sample of the lecture material presented at the school was selected for this issue. Each paper was reviewed anonymously before final acceptance and publication. The lectures covered not only recent research advances, but also the teaching of the discipline and research methodology. We the editors thank the lecturers, the participants and President Adrian Bavaru (Ovidius University) for making the summer school a great success. We also thank Professor John T. McMullan, Editor of the International Journal of Energy Research, for dedicating this special issue to the latest research on transport through porous media. It is our hope that the material selected for this issue will serve as a guide for future research and education in this important sector of energy engineering.