Numerical Investigation of Convection around Heated Circular Cylinder Wrapped with Bi-Disperse Porous Medium in Channel

In this study, convective heat transfer around a heated circular cylinder covered with an annular porous medium in a flat channel was numerically investigated. To enhance the heat transfer, the porous medium is chosen to have a high thermal conductivity, whereas it is equipped with two different dispersions to reduce the pressure drop through the channel. To create two different dispersions (bi-disperse porous medium), the cylinder is covered uniformly by multiple porous fins with a porosity of 0.9. In this regard, the fin porosity will be the first levels of porosity (microscopic porosity) and the arrangement of fins will be referred to as the second levels (macroscopic porosity) of the porous medium. The main goal of this research is to investigate and optimize flow conditions to achieve the highest outlet temperature and the highest heat transfer rate, where the pressure drop is reduced to a minimum value. This optimization is carried out for flow Reynolds number of 60 to 120, the Darcy number of 10-3 to 10-5, macroscopic porosity of 0.25 to 0.75, and outer to inner fin ratios of 1.5 to 2. Numerical simulations are conducted, using the lattice Boltzmann method and the validity of simulations is assessed by the use of numerical and experimental data available in the literature. To optimize, the response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design is used and numerical results indicate that predictions obtained by RSM are in good agreement with actual flow condition in the optimum configuration. This research can provide new insight into the optimization process in heat exchanger designs.