Numerical investigation of forced convection heat transfer around and through an elliptical porous cylinder

Convection heat transfer from a heated elliptical porous cylinder in the incompressible and laminar crossfflow is studied numerically. The effects of Darcy number (10(-6) = Da = 10(-2)), aspect ratio (0.2 = AR = 5), Prandtl number (0.7 = Pr = 70), Reynolds number (10 = Re = 40), on the average Nusselt number (Nu), as well as the lift and the drag coefficients are investigated. Two types of thermal boundary conditions for porous cylinder are investigated: uniformly distributed heat source and constant temperature. The fluid flow in the porous medium is numerically simulated by the superficial velocity model. Additionally, the energy equation in the porous medium is simplified by the local thermal equilibrium (LTE) hypothesis. It is concluded that the aspect ratio of the elliptical cylinder has a great influence on the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of this problem. Results show that increasing the Darcy number increases the Nusselt number and decreases the drag coefficient of the porous cylinder. Moreover, values of Da smaller than 10(-4) resemble the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of the impermeable solid cylinder.