Isotropic and anisotropic heat transfer in active wall porous media foam type

TL;DR

This study advances the understanding of heat transfer in isotropic and anisotropic porous media within active walls, using finite volume simulations to analyze the effects of geometry and material properties on thermal performance.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed finite volume modeling approach to characterize heat transfer in foam-type porous media, highlighting the impact of geometric and material anisotropy.

Findings

Contact area ratio significantly affects isotropic heat transfer.

Anisotropic media show strong directional dependence in heat transfer.

Effects are pronounced in active walls with dual solid phases.

Abstract

Positive buildings in energy are, nowadays, a recurrent objective of many researches in the construction and energetic efficiency domain. Furthermore, to achieve this objective, some studies about active and reactive walls have been carried out employing porous medium as a main structure. Nevertheless, transfer characterization in a foam type sample is not fully understood. The goal of this study is to improve the characterization of heat transfer in isotropic and anisotropic configurations of a porous medium. Thus, a finite volume method was implemented to study a heat transfer through these media, in the interest of achieving their ratio equivalent to fluid thermal conductivity (i.e. Nusselt number). Finally, the results indicate a notable influence of the ratio of the contact and the total inlet area on the isotropic configuration as well as strong influence given by the different axis on the anisotropic model. Moreover, the analysis shows that in an active wall constituted by two solid phases, these effects will be preponderant for their characterization.