Review of heat transfer enhancement in a heat exchanger with partially filled porous media

In thermal devices like heat exchangers, improvement of convection heat transfer becomes an important factor in the development of modern industrial world. Inserting porous medium in a fluidic region is one of the effective methods among the passive heat transfer augmentation technics. Further it is preferred not to fully fill the system with the porous medium. This is to avoid the significant pressure drops occurring in the fully filled systems. This paper presents a brief discussion on the application of partially filled porous medium in a channel and circular pipe for forced convection. And also it is extended to some special cases like flow through rotating pipes, oscillating and MHD flows. The overall review of analytical, numerical and experimental work gives an idea about the position, thickness, porosity and area to be filled to achieve maximum heat transfer with minimum pressure drop.