The Porous Media Interfaces
The Porous Media interfaces () simulate heat transfer in porous media combining a liquid and a solid phase. The interfaces correspond to the different assumptions of heat transfer behavior between the phases:
The Heat Transfer in Porous Media Interface
The Heat Transfer in Porous Media interface () combines conduction in a porous matrix and in the fluid contained in the pore structure with the convection of heat generated by the flow of the fluid. This physics interface uses the provided power law or a user-defined expression for the effective heat transfer properties, and a predefined expression for dispersion in porous media. Dispersion is caused by the tortuous path of the liquid in the porous media. (This would be absent if the mean convective term was accounted for.) This physics interface may be used for a wide range of porous materials, from porous structures in the pulp and paper industry to the simulation of heat transfer in soil and rocks.
The Local Thermal Nonequilibrium Interface
The Local Thermal Nonequilibrium (LTNE) interface () implements a macroscale model designed to simulate heat transfer in porous media where the temperatures in the porous matrix and the fluid are not in equilibrium. It differs from simpler macroscale models for heat transfer in porous media where the temperature difference between the solid and fluid is neglected. The absence of thermal equilibrium can result from fast transient changes, but it can also be observed in stationary cases. Typical applications are rapid heating of a porous media using a hot fluid or internal heat generation in one of the phases (due to inductive or microwave heating, exothermic reactions, and so on). This is observed in nuclear devices, electronics systems, or fuel cells for example.
The Heat Transfer in Packed Beds Interface
The Heat Transfer in Packed Beds interface () provides a multiscale model for heat transfer in a porous medium where the local thermal equilibrium is not assumed between the pellets of a packed bed and the fluid phase, and where the temperature variation inside the pellets is taken into account. A temperature field is defined for each phase, pellets and fluid of the porous medium, and the heat transfer between them is accounted for. The microscale pellets temperature field depends on the radial coordinate of each pellet.