Yaser Hadad and Khosrow Jafarpur*
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 26, no. 2, pp.643-649, 2012

Abstract : There are many parameters that have significant effects on forced convection heat transfer in packed beds, including Reynolds and Prandtl numbers of flow, porosity, pebble geometry, local flow conditions, wall and end effects. In addition, there have been many experimental investigations on forced convection heat transfer in packed beds and each have studied the effect of some of these parameters. Yet, there is not a reliable correlation that includes the effect of main parameters; at the same time, the prediction of precise correct limits for very low and high Reynolds numbers is off hand. In this article a general well-known model of convection heat transfer from isothermal bodies, next to some previous reliable experimental data has been used as a basis for a more comprehensive and accurate correlation to calculate the laminar constant temperature pebble-fluid forced convection heat transfer in a homogeneous saturated bed with spherical pebbles. Finally, for corroboration, the present results are compared with previous works and show a very good agreement for laminar flows at any Prandtl number and all porosities.

Keyword : Conduction limit; Forced convection; Local flow conditions; Pebbles geometry; Porosity; Wall effects