Faculty Publications

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    Comparison of fluid flow and heat transfer through metal foams and wire mesh by using CFD
    (Bentham Science Publishers, 2019) Kotresha, B.; Gnanasekaran, N.
    Background: The unique structural characteristics of the metal foams, such as low density, large surface area, ability to increase turbulence, and increased heat transfer efficiency, are the advantages associated with thermal applications such as electronics cooling, refrigeration air conditioning, etc. The porous metal foam structures are extensively used to enhance heat transfer. Objective: This paper discusses the numerical simulations of a vertical channel filled with metal foam and wire mesh. The fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena of a wire mesh are compared with two different types of metal foams. Metal foams are made of aluminium and copper while the wire mesh is made of brass. The porosity of the metallic porous structures varies from 0.85 to 0.95. Methods: A Darcy extended Forchheirmer model is considered for solving fluid flow through the porous media while the heat transfer through the porous media is predicted using local thermal non-equilibrium model. Results: Initially, the results obtained using the proposed numerical procedures are compared with experimental results available in the literature. The numerical simulations suggest that the pressure drop increases as the velocity of the fluid increases and decreases as the porosity increases. The heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number are determined for both the metal foams and the wire mesh. Conclusion: The Nusselt number obtained for wire mesh shows almost 90% of the copper metal foam in the same porosity range. The numerical results suggest that the brass wire mesh porous medium can also be used for enhancement of heat transfer. In this article, patents have been discussed. © 2019 Bentham Science Publishers.
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    Inexpensive computations using computational fluid dynamics combined with asymptotics applied to laminar mixed convection in a vertical channel
    (American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2019) Nakate, P.; Kotresha, B.; Gnanasekaran, N.
    In this work, a solution technique is proposed by synergistically combining asymptotics and computational fluid dynamics to ascertain a problem of laminar mixed convection heat transfer in a vertical channel. First, numerical simulation is carried out on a vertical channel that consists of an aluminum heater plate assembly at the center of the channel. The numerical model is treated as a conjugate heat transfer problem, and the concept of perturbation and blending is incorporated wherein the limiting solution of natural and forced convection is obtained in terms of average Nusselt number. These correlations are then blended to find a unified composite correlation that work very well for extreme limits of mixed convection. The Richardson number is chosen as an independent variable in the present analysis; as a result, the Nusselt number correlation is cogent for the mixed convection region. Upon performing the numerical simulations, the results of the mixed convection are then compared with experimental results available in the literature for the purpose of validation of the numerical solution. The results of the present work emphasize that, with minimum computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions, one can obtain a reasonably good composite correlation for the Nusselt number for mixed convection and also a substantial reduction of computations is possible ensuing an asymptotically flawless solution. © © 2019 by ASME.
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    Numerical Simulations of Flow-Assisted Mixed Convection in a Vertical Channel Filled with High Porosity Metal Foams
    (Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2020) Kotresha, B.; Gnanasekaran, N.; Balaji, C.
    In this work, two-dimensional numerical simulations of flow-assisted mixed convection in a vertical channel filled with high porosity metal foams have been carried out by using the commercial ANSYS FLUENT. In order to enhance heat transfer, the vertical channel is filled with aluminum metal foams of different pores per inch (PPI). Four different metal foams PPI 10, 20, 30, and 45, with porosity values varying from 0.90 to 0.95 are considered in this study. The geometry under consideration consists of metal foam attached to the aluminum plate in the vertical channel and the resulting problem becomes conjugate heat transfer. The metal foam region is considered as a homogeneous porous medium with the Darcy Extended Forchheirmer model to evaluate the flow characteristics while the local thermal non-equilibrium heat transfer model is considered for the heat transfer analysis. Initially, numerical results are compared with the experimental results available in literature and the agreement was found to be good. Parametric studies show that as the metal foam PPI increases, the pressure drop increases, while the heat transfer is seen to increase with an increase in the pore density of the metal foam. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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    Numerical Simulations of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer through Aluminum and Copper Metal Foam Heat Exchanger–A Comparative Study
    (Taylor and Francis Ltd. michael.wagreich@univie.ac.at, 2020) Kotresha, B.; Gnanasekaran, N.
    This article discusses about a numerical simulation of a metal foam heat exchanger system carried out by a commercial software. A metal foam layer is attached to the bottom of the heat exchanger to absorb heat from the exhaust hot gas leaving the system. Two types of metal foams with two different pores per inch (PPI) values are considered for heat transfer enhancement. Similarly, two different materials Aluminum and copper, that poses high thermal conductivity, metal foams are considered for the present numerical simulations. The heat exchanger system is simulated over a range of 6–30 m/s fluid velocity. The proposed simulations are compared with theoretical and experimental data available in the literature. The goal is to improve the thermal performance of the heat exchanger by decreasing the pressure drop and maximizing the heat transfer rate. Finally, it has been noticed that the velocity of the fluid decreases as PPI increases at the expense of its pressure drop. The copper metal foam gives a maximum increase of 4–10% heat transfer rate compared to aluminum metal foams for a fluid velocity of 30 m/s. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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    A Parametric Study on Mixed Convection in a Vertical Channel in the Presence of Wire Mesh
    (Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2021) Kotresha, B.; Gnanasekaran, N.
    A numerical study on mixed convection is carried out through a partially filled brass wire mesh in a vertical channel. A heater embedded with aluminum plates is placed at the center of the vertical channel. The aluminum heater assembly is wrapped with brass wire mesh to facilitate more heat transfer. The vertical channel that consists of aluminum heater assembly with the brass wire mesh is considered as the numerical model. Local thermal non-equilibrium and Darcy extended Forchheimer models are used to accomplish the numerical simulations for thermal and flow characteristics of the considered domain. The aim of the study is to find out the optimum filling of the brass wire mesh in the channel which gives a higher heat transfer rate with low pumping power of the fluid. In the present analysis, three different filling conditions of wire mesh are considered: (i) fully filled channel, (ii) 70% filled channel, and (iii) 40% filled channel. From the results, it is inferred that the vertical channel partially filled with 70% of wire mesh porous medium predicts 89% of heat transfer of the completely filled channel with 41% reduced pressure loss. As a result, the proposed parametric study is good enough to prove that the partly filled wire mesh can be used in the thermal applications where augmentation of heat transfer is required with less pressure drop. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.