Discrete and continuous modelling of convective heat transport in a thin porous layer of mono sized spheres

Convective heat transport in a relatively thin porous layer of monosized particles is here modeled. The size of the particles is only one order of magnitude smaller than the thickness of the layer. Both a discrete three-dimensional system of particles and a continuous one-dimensional model are considered. The methodology applied for the discrete system is Voronoi discretization with minimization of dissipation rate of energy. The discrete and continuous model compares well for low velocities for the studied uniform inlet boundary conditions. When increasing the speed or for a thin porous layer however, the continuous model diverge from the discrete approach if a constant dispersion is used in the continuous approach. The new result is thus that a special correlation must be used when using a continuous model for flow perpendicular to a thin porous media in order to predict the dispersion in proper manner, especially in combination with higher velocities.