Coupling effect of heat transfer in plate heat exchanger filled with porous media

Abstract The forced convection heat transfer characteristics in plate heat exchanger filled with porous media are semi-analytically investigated in this paper. The Darcy-Brinkman model is utilized to describe the fluid flow, and the local thermal non-equilibrium model is employed to establish the energy equations. The solutions of the temperature and velocity distributions are validated in limiting case. The coupling heat transfer characteristics are studied in parallel flow and counter flow under different conditions. The influences of the heat capacity ratio, the Darcy number, the Biot number, the porosity, and the thermal conductivity, on heat transfer are discussed. The results show the coupling effect in plate heat exchanger filled with porous media since the thermal boundary conditions of each channel of the plate heat exchanger are dependent on the flow and heat transfer parameters of both the two channels. The heat capacity ratio is found to have the most important influence on the coupling effect. The coupling effect should be considered when designing the plate heat exchanger filled with porous media.