Abstract
Experimental confirmation of theoretical results related to centrifugally-driven free convection in porous media is presented. Theoretically, an extension of Darcy's law is required for analyzing the centrifugal buoyancy effect, a process that requires both theoretical and experimental justification; otherwise, the centrifugal buoyancy term can be regarded as insignificantly small and can be neglected. This paper's major objective is to provide this theoretical and experimental justification. The theoretical part of this paper consists of providing the derivation of the appropriate governing equations and analytical results obtained by means of a perturbation technique. The experimental part of this paper focuses on qualitative convection results in a rotating Hele-Shaw cell. Hele-Shaw cells play an important role in providing an analogous experimental tool to analyze two-dimensional flow and heat transfer in porous media. The temperature and flowfields resulting from centrifugally-driven free convection in a rotating Hele-Shaw cell are visualized by using a thermosensitive liquid-crystal tracer. The experimental results are compared qualitatively with theoretical predictions of flow and temperature fields in a rotating porous layer.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 261-272 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Porous Media |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| State | Published - 1998 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Modeling and Simulation
- Biomedical Engineering
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering