Modeling of Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer in a Trapezoidal Porous Bed on a Grid

Abstract

We investigate heat and mass transfer in an isosceles trapezoidal cavity, filled with charcoal considered as a granular porous medium. The Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer flow model is coupled to the energy and mass equations with the assumption of non-thermal equilibrium. These equations are discretized by the finite volume method with an offset mesh and then solved by the line-by-line method of Thomas. The coupling between pressure and velocity is obtained by Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations. (SIMPLE) algorithm. The results show that the temperature in the cavity increases when the inclination angle of the sides walls decreases. The 15˚ inclination is selected as being able to offer better thermal performance in the cookstove combustion chamber.