Abstract

PATINO, Luís A.; ESPINOZA, Henry J.  and  SUAREZ, Diogenes. TRANSIENT CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER FOR FLUID FLOW THROUGH PACKED BEDS. uct [online]. 2005, vol.9, n.36, pp.211-216. ISSN 1316-4821.

A theoretical-experimental methodology is presented herein to determine the interstitial coefficients of an average heat transfer in the flow of fluids through packed beds where the fluid is not in thermal balance with the solid phase. The heat convection coefficients are obtained through "single-blow transient methods" combining the experimental results obtained in a test bank with the numerical solutions of the mathematical model proposed and constituted by the equation of continuity, the momentum equations, the energy equation for the fluid phase, the energy equation for the solid phase, and the respective initial and boundary conditions. The partial-differentialequations system generated in the mathematical model is solved through an analytical-numerical methodology, beginning with obtaining the temperature distribution in the solid matrix in an analytical way and introducing it as a transitory source term in the fluid energy equation. For the numerical solution a code of Finite Volumes (CFX 4,3TM) in axisimetrical cylindrical coordinates was used. The experimental tests and the numerical solutions were conducted for different values of superficial speed of the fluid at the entrance of the bed and for different porosity values which proved that the Nusselt numbers greatly depend on the Peclet numbers and the porosity of the media.

Keywords : Convection; Fluids Flow; Heat Transfer; Packed bed; Simulation.