Is there anyone with experience in simulation of heat transfer in porous media with STAR-CD?

We are working on a project to simulate a heat exchanger with a less complex model in STAR-CD. The idea is to replace the turbulators in the oil cooler by porous media.

We have so far determined the coefficients for the pressure drop by experimental data. So the pressure field as well as the velocity distribution are identical to the experiment. However, the solutions for the heat flux and temperature don't match with the experimental data. There is a higher temperature drop in the simulation then in the experiment (=> 3 to 4 times higher!!).

The problem probably relies on the setting of the thermal properties of the porous region (Effective Conductivity, Turbulent Prandtl Number). How do I have to set these values?

Thanks!!

Which version of STAR-CD are you using? Heat transfer in porous media is only available in V4.02.

I am using STAR-CD V3.26 and of course there is heat transfer in porous media available.

We use a (solid)shadow set of cells in 3.26

My post graduate student is working on heat transfer studies of a porous media(copper metal foam) for his project work under my guidance.He is using fluent for this.

[decoy_ps]

can you help how to define the metallic foam in ansys fluent?
and how to set up physics?
I am a post graduate student working on copper metallic foam

[decoy_ps]

can you help how to define the metallic foam in ansys fluent?
and how to set up physics?
I am a post graduate student working on copper metallic foam

[decoy_ps]

Originally Posted by Bensely
;173511

My post graduate student is working on heat transfer studies of a porous media(copper metal foam) for his project work under my guidance.He is using fluent for this.

can you help how to define the metallic foam in ansys fluent?
and how to set up physics?
I am a post graduate student working on copper metallic foam

[fluid23]

Originally Posted by decoy_ps

can you help how to define the metallic foam in ansys fluent?
and how to set up physics?
I am a post graduate student working on copper metallic foam

You will need to enable non-thermal equilibrium, define resistance tensors, set a porosity (solid volume fraction) and define the specific heat of the solid material as well as any heat sources/sinks. The help files are actually pretty solid when it comes to documentation, assuming you find it. Sometimes the search feature provides irrelevant results.

[fluid23]

Sorry, I take back everything I said. Not sure how to do it in cd, was referring to ccm+. Didn’t realize anyone still used star-cd.