FREEZING HEAT-TRANSFER IN WATER-SATURATED POROUS-MEDIA IN A VERTICAL RECTANGULAR VESSEL

Numerical and experimental study is performed for the freezing of water-saturated porous media in a vertical rectangular vessel. The governing equations are solved by using a variable transformation and employing a finite difference scheme. The SOR method is utilized to solve numerically the equations. Different size and types of spherical beads are used as the porous media. The temperature of cold wall is kept at - 10-degrees-C, while that of the hot wall is varied from 2-degrees-C to 22-degrees-C. Comparisons of the analytical results with the experimental ones are made. The effects of the Stefan number, the Darcy number, the modified Prandtl number and the ratio of the temperature of cold wall to the temperature of hot wall are discussed for freezing of the water-saturated porous media.