Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-04T05:13:22.150Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Boiling in a porous layer heated from below: effects of natural convection and a moving liquid/two-phase interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

P. S. Ramesh  and
K. E. Torrance
P. S. Ramesh
Affiliation:
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Current address: Xerox Corp., Design Research Institute, Engineering and Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
K. E. Torrance
Affiliation:
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Boiling and natural-convection processes in a horizontal, fluid-saturated porous layer are investigated. The layer is heated uniformly from below and is cooled from above. Volumetric cooling is also allowed. The thermodynamic structure consists of a liquid region overlying a two-phase region. Numerical techniques are used to solve the transient, two-dimensional equations in the liquid and two-phase regions, and at the phase-change interface. A parametric study is carried out in terms of the liquid-phase Rayleigh number (Ra) and the non-dimensional bottom heat flux (Qb). Three solution regimes are observed: conduction-dominated at low Ra, convection-dominated at intermediate Ra, and oscillatory convection at high Ra. In the convection-dominated regime, transitions to multiple cell patterns are observed as Qb is increased. Oscillatory convection appears to be triggered by asymmetric disturbances in the system. The effects of initial conditions and the stability of the solutions to perturbations are also investigated. The heat transfer correlations and qualitative flow patterns are in agreement with experiments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 257 , December 1993 , pp. 289 - 309
Copyright
© 1993 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bau, H. H. & Torrance, K. E. 1982a Boiling in low-permeability porous materials. Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer 25, 45–55.Google Scholar
Bau, H. H. & Torrance, K. E. 1982b Thermal convection and boiling in a porous medium. Lett. Heat Mass Transfer 9, 431–441.Google Scholar
Bjornsson, S. & Stefansson, V. 1987 Heat and mass transport in geothermal reservoirs. In Advances in Transport Phenomena in Porous Media (ed. J. Bear & M. Y. Corapcioglu), pp. 143–183. Martinus Nijhoff.
Cheng, P. 1978 Heat transfer in geothermal systems. Adv Heat Transfer 14, 1–105.Google Scholar
Echaniz, H. L. 1984 Oscillatory convection with boiling in a water-saturated porous medium. MS thesis, Cornell University.
Gary, J. & Kassoy, D. R. 1981 Computation of steady and oscillatory convection in saturated porous media. J. Comput. Phys. 40, 120–142.Google Scholar
Horne, R. N. & Caltagirone, J. P. 1989 On the evolution of thermal disturbances during natural convection in a porous medium. J. Fluid Mech. 10, 385–395.Google Scholar
Lasseter, T. J. 1975 The numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer in multi-dimensional two-phase geothermal reservoirs. ASME Trans. 75-WA/HT-71.
Ramesh, P. S. 1988 Boiling and natural convection in a fluid-saturated porous medium. PhD thesis, Cornell University.
Ramesh, P. S. Torrance, K. E. 1990a Stability of boiling in porous media. Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer 33, 1895–1908.Google Scholar
Ramesh, P. S. & Torrance, K. E. 1990b Numerical algorithm for problems involving boiling and natural convection in porous materials, Numer. Heat Transfer B 17, 1–24.Google Scholar
Sondergeld, C. H. & Turcotte, D. L. 1977 An experimental study of two-phase convection in a porous medium with applications to geological problems. J. Geophys. Res. 82, 2045–2053.Google Scholar
Sondergeld, C. H. & Turcotte, D. L. 1978 Flow visualization studies of two-phase thermal convection in a porous layer. Pure Appl. Geophys. 117, 321–330.Google Scholar
Tewari, P. K. 1982 A study of boiling and convection in a fluid-saturated porous media. MS thesis, Cornell University.
Torrance, K. E. 1983 Boiling in porous media. ASME/JSME Thermal Engng Joint Conf. Proc., vol. 2, pp. 593–606.