Abstract
Convective heat transfer in a channel filled with porous media has been analyzed in this paper. The two-equation model is applied for the heat transfer analysis with the velocity profile, considering both the inertia and viscous effects. Based on a theoretical solution, the effect of the velocity profile on the convective heat transfer is investigated in detail. The Nusselt number is obtained in terms of the relevant physical parameters, such as the Biot number for the internal heat exchange, the ratio of effective conductivities between the fluid and solid phases, and hydraulic boundary layer thickness. The results indicate that the influence of the velocity profile is characterized within two regimes according to the two parameters, the Biot number and the conductivity ratio between the phases. The decrease in the heat transfer due to the hydraulic boundary layer thickness is 15% at most within a practical range of the pertinent parameters.