This Brief reports on heat transfer from a solid boundary in a saturated porous medium. Experiments reveal overall heat transfer laws when the flow along the wall is driven by buoyancy produced by large temperature differences, and mathematical analysis using advanced volume-averaging techniques produce estimates of how heat is dispersed in the porous zone. Engineers, hydrologists and geophysicists will find the results valuable for validation of laboratory and field tests, as well as testing their models of dispersion of heat and mass in saturated media.

Describes mathematics of volume averaging of the non-liner PDEs describing fluid flow in saturated porous media with heat transfer from bounding surfaces and between fluid and porous structure Explains measurements of heat transfer to a saturated porous medium to support theoretical development Presents estimation of thermal dispersion in the porous medium when buoyant flow Provides context with a thorough review of relevant literature

Autorentext
Dr. Hitoshi Sakamoto is a research scientist with Huawei Technologies, KK, Japan.
Dr. Francis Kulacki is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Prior Research.- The Volume-Averaged Energy Equations.- Heat Transfer Measurements.- Results.- Thermal Dispersion.- Conclusion.