Patent ID: 8165855

Claim:
A computerized method of modeling fluid flow over porous blocks, comprising the steps of: establishing a set of variables V, E f , ρ f , k eff , T, and S k f , wherein the variable ρ f is a fluid density, V is a velocity vector, E f is a fluid energy per unit mass, k eff represents an effective thermal conductivity in a porous medium of a plurality of porous media, T is a temperature, p is a fluid pressure, τ is a shear stress vector, ε is a porosity, and S k f is a fluid enthalpy source term; calculating temperature, pressure and velocity variation in fluid flow within a cavity as ∇·(V(ρ f E f +p))=∇·(k eff ∇T−τ·V)+S f k for each said porous medium of the plurality of porous media; establishing boundary conditions for the calculation of temperature, pressure and velocity variation, wherein the cavity comprises a square cavity having a longitudinally opposed inlet and outlet; calculating a Nusselt number for each said porous medium as Nu = h _ ⁢ L k eff , wherein h represents an averaged heat transfer coefficient calculated as h _ = q A ⁢ ⁢ Δ ⁢ ⁢ T avg , where A represents a cross-sectional area of a porous block respectively formed from each said porous medium, T avg represents a temperature difference between an average surface temperature of the respective porous medium and a cavity inlet temperature T i , L represents a length of the cavity, and q represents a heat transfer rate, wherein a longitudinal length of each said porous block is 0.27 L; calculating a Grashoff number as Gr = g ⁢ ⁢ β ⁡ ( T s - T i ) ⁢ L 2 v 2 , wherein g is a center of gravity, β is a volumetric thermal expansion coefficient, v is a velocity along a first Cartesian axis, and T s is a surface temperature; and displaying numerical results of the calculated temperature, pressure and velocity variations in the cavity, wherein the numerical results include the Nusselt number and the Grashoff number.