Abstract
Characteristics of wall-to-air heat transfer for a fully developed forced convection have been studied in a large rectangular packed duct with 160 cm heated length, 40 cm width, and for low bed equivalent diameter to particle diameter ratio. The separation distance between the top and bottom walls is 10 cm. A uniform heat flux is supplied at the top wall, while the bottom wall is insulated. Raschig rings in two and spherical packing in three sizes have been used in the air flow passage to investigate the enhancement of heat transfer due to packing. Temperature profiles for the steady and unsteady states have been measured. In modeling, the Ergun equation and energy equations are solved to calculate the temperature profile for the steady-state only. It has been found that the introduction of the packing into the air flow passage increases the wall-to-fluid heat transfer approximately three times compared with that of empty bed. This finding can enhance the rational use of energy from solar air heaters, chemical reactors, electronic cooling and many other engineering applications.