Experimental Study of Forced Heat Convection through a Vertical Porous Annuli

In this study, an experimental work of forced heat convection has been conducted for water flowing through a vertical porous annuli. Three various sizes of glass ball porous media and porosities are utilized. The outer cylinder is made of Teflon (TPFE) while the inner cylinder is made of polished copper and it is electrically heated from inner with four various input power levels. Wide range of water flow rate in term of Reynolds number are utilized. The influence of porous media particles size, porosity, Reynolds number and wall heat flux on the heat characteristics and performance of forced convection have been tested and analyzed experimentally. The experimental results appear that the Nusselt number increases with increasing of ball sizes and decreasing porosity. Also, the forced heat convection performance of vertical porous annuli in term of Nusselt number is about three to three and half times more than that annuli without porous media for constant porosity.