Effect of the Thickness of Porous Medium on Natural Convection Heat Transfer with Thermal Radiation in Building Envelope

With the development of living standards and energy conservation awareness, people pay more and more attention to the building energy saving and evaluation of building thermal performance. This paper deals with the effect of the thickness of wall on natural convection heat transfer with thermal radiation in a building room with porous medium envelope. The governing equations for the momentum and heat transfer in both free fluid and porous medium were solved by the finite element method. Comparisons with experimental and numerical results in the literature have been carried out. Effects of the thickness of wall on natural convection and heat transfer in both free fluid and porous medium were analyzed. It was found that The Nu(c) at the interface decrease with increase of thickness of porous media until d <= 0.25, and there is no change in Nuc as d is further increased. When d reaches a certain value, the flow field and the temperature field won't change as d increases. (c) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.