Abstract
The present study is to examine numerically and experimentally the transient characteristics of natural convective heat transfer in a rectangular cavity packed with a fluid and spherical solid particles. The natural convection occurring in dependence on the dimensions of the cavity, the porosity and the thermal physical properties of the porous media plays an important role in an evaluation of the transient characteristics of heat transfer in a porous layer. It could be understood that the natural convection occurring in the porous layer had the effects of homogenizing thermally the porous layer and shortening the time period to reach a thermally steady state after starting the heating of the porous layer. Therefore it might be possible to control the transient time period and the amount of heat stored into the porous layer by managing the intensity of natural convection with proper combinations of fluid and solid particles and dimensions of the cavity.
