Comparison of Thermal Dispersion Effects for Single and two Phase Analysis of Heat Transfer in Porous Media

Abstract

The present work involves numerical simulation of a steady, incompressible forcedconvection fluid flow through a matrix of porous media between two parallel plates at constanttemperature. A Darcy model for the momentum equation was employed. The mathematical model forenergy transport was based on single phase equation model which assumes local thermal equilibriumbetween fluid and solid phases. Single phase equation was derived by volume averaging on controlvolume. This model was modified by addition of dispersion terms.The results of this investigation were compared with two phase simulation’s results. Implementationof two phase model was expressed by separate energy equations of each solid and fluid phase. Theresults show that in many cases there are no significant differences between two approaches.However better compatibility of single phase model’s results with empirical results and no possibilityof determining the empirical parameters of two phase model, was observed.