Transient response of non-thermal equilibrium packed beds

Abstract

This paper reports the results concerning the dynamic response of the temperature distribution in a semi-infinite porous medium, with a time-varying fluid inlet temperature and arbitrary initial condition for the solid temperature distribution. A two-energy equation model is employed, the solution gives the fluid and solid temperatures in the porous medium as a function of time and axial distance. The results are obtained by a direct mathematical attack on the governing differential equations derived from the appropriate physical laws. The general solutions, presented as converging series of integrals of modified Bessel functions on space and time, are accurately computed on a common personal computer with very low computational time.