Session: 19-04: Symposium to Honor Professor Jane Davidson IV

Paper Number: 169445

169445 - Mesoscale Thermal Energy Transport Through Porous Structures 

Abstract: 

Transport models for convective flow through porous structures are developed and the transport correlations are bridged with multiple length scales. A uniform mesoscale non-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model is applied to speed up the solutions of the thermal energy transport through porous structures and provide the pore scale views of the thermal energy transport, which are affected by the in pore and after porous structure flow patterns.  Effects of structure and physical properties are investigated. The drag and heat transfer effectiveness across the multiple length scales are quantitatively related to the porosity, microscopic coefficients and geometry factor of solid shapes.  Spiral flow structures are more effective to increase the local thermal transport due to the third spatial direction convective flow.  Large spirals sizes are observed in cases of larger pore scale Reynolds numbers, i.e., larger local porosities. While the spiral sizes behind the porous structures are decrease with porosities.  Both natural convection and forced convections through complex porous structures including fibers, metal foams, and topology optimized structures will be shown.

Presenting Author: Yan Su University of Macau

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Su is currently an associate Professor of Electromechanical Engineering in University of Macau. She received his PhD degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering from University of Minnesota in 2006. In year 2000 and 2003, she obtained her Bachelor of Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University, and Master of Mechanical Engineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, respectively. Dr. Su’s research interests include Thermal Dispersion in Porous Medium, Renewable Energy Systems, Oscillating Flows, Indoor Air Quality and lattice Boltzmann Methods. She also serves as the director of the solar energy laboratory of University of Macau and associate editors of Journal of Heat Transfer (ASME) and Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (Elsevier).