Thermal Dispersion in Porous Media - a Review on the Experimental Studies for Packed Beds

Abstract

Thermal dispersion is an important topic in the convective heat transfer in porous media. In order to determine the heat transfer in a packed bed, the effective thermal conductivity including both stagnant and dispersion thermal conductivities should be known. Several theoretical and experimental studies have been performed on the determination of the effective thermal conductivity. The aim of this study is to review the experimental studies done on the determination of the effective thermal conductivity of the packed beds. In this study, firstly brief information on the definition of the thermal dispersion is presented and then the reported experimental studies on the determination of the effective thermal conductivity are summarized and compared. The reported experimental methods are classified into three groups: (1) heat addition/removal at the lateral boundaries, (2) heat addition at the inlet/ outlet boundary, (3) heat addition inside the bed. For each performed study, the experimental details, methods, obtained results, and suggested correlations for the determination of the effective thermal conductivity are presented. The similarities and differences between experimental methods and reported studies are shown by tables. Comparison of the correlations for the effective thermal conductivity is made by using figures and the results of the studies are discussed. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.