Parametric Study on the Primitive Lattice Using the Pore-Scale Simulation to Characterize the Flow and Heat Transfer Performance

In this study, a Primitive lattice based on Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) is used to build a porous structure for performing a combination of pore-scale numerical simulation along with the porous media flow simulation. On the three-dimensional lattice, numerical analysis is performed for single-phase fluid subjected to uniform heating at the walls. The void subdomain of the lattice is designated as the fluid zone, to perform the pore-scale numerical simulations; whereas, the solid subdomain of the lattice is designated as the microporous zone to perform porous transport simulations. The parametric studies for overall pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient are performed for a range of permeability of microporous zone. It is shown that when the micro-permeability is increased in the range \(10^{ - 10} < {\text{Da}}_{\mu } < 10^{ - 5}\) , there is no significant change in pressure drop as well as the heat transfer coefficients. On the other hand, increase of micro-permeability in the range of \(10^{ - 5} < {\text{Da}}_{\mu } < 10^{ - 1}\) causes a sharp drop in the pressure drop and a marginal drop in the effective heat transfer coefficient. Therefore, replacing the solid zone with porous zone for the solid subdomain of the lattice provides an improved thermo-mechanical performance for the mini-channel even in the low flow rate regime ( \({\text{Re}} = 10\) ).