Convective heat transfer in coarse-grained porous media: A numerical investigation of natural and mixed convection

Heat transfer by the motion of fluids, referred to as convective heat transfer, is ubiquitous. Convective heat transfer in enclosures packed with solid obstacles, is of great importance in various engineering and real-life applications, such as in blast furnaces, refrigeration devices, distribution transformers, nuclear waste disposal, energy storage, etc. Both natural convection, where the heat transfer occurs due to the flow induced by density differences, and mixed convection, where the combined influence of natural convection and forced convection is of importance, play an important role in these applications.