Electromagnetic field effects on transport through porous media

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt Electromagnetic field effects on transport through porous media W. Klinbun a, K. Vafai b,⇑, P. Rattanadecho c a Rattanakosin College for Sustainable Energy and Environment (RCSEE), Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, 96 moo 3, Puthamonthon Sai 5, Salaya, Puthamonthon, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand b Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, A363 Bourns Hall, Riverside, CA, 2507-0425, USA c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thammasat University (Rangsit Campus), 99 moo 18, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 30 May 2011 Received in revised form 30 August 2011 Accepted 30 August 2011 Available online 6 October 2011 Keywords: Forced convection Electromagnetic field Thermal dispersion Local thermal non equilibrium (LTNE) Porous medium a b s t r a c t The effect of an imposed electromagnetic field on forced convection in porous media is analyzed in this work. The transient Maxwell’s equations are solved to simulate the electromagnetic field inside the waveguide and within a porous medium. The Brinkman–Forchheimer extended Darcy (generalized model) equations are used to represent the flow fluid inside a porous medium. The local thermal nonequilibrium (LTNE) is taken into account by solving the two-energy equation model for fluid and solid phases. Computational domain is represented for a range of Darcy number from 105 to 107 and dimensionless electromagnetic wave power P⁄ from 0 to 1600, and dimensionless electromagnetic wave frequency f⁄ from 0 to 8. The effect of variations of the pertinent electromagnetic field parameters in affecting the flow and thermal fields and the Nusselt number are analyzed. This investigation provides the essential aspects for a fundamental understanding of forced convection in porous media while experiencing an applied electromagnetic field such as applications in the material-processing field. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Various engineering applications are based on forced convection through a porous medium. For example, cooling of nuclear waste container, catalytic, heat transfer enhancement devices, chemical reactors, solar power collectors, drying processes, combustion and ceramic processing to name a few. As such transport through porous media has been of interest for many decades. Two different models are used for analyzing heat transfer in a porous medium; local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE). Most of the prior works are based on invoking the local thermal equilibrium assumption; i.e., the solid phase temperature is equal to fluid phase temperature everywhere in the porous medium. However, this assumption is not valid for a number of physical situations such as when the fluid flows at a high speed through the porous medium. In recent years, the local thermal non-equilibrium model in a porous medium has received more attention as demonstrated by the works of Vafai and Sozen [1–3] and further pursued by Quintard and Whitaker [4], Quintard [5], Amiri and Vafai [6], Kuznetsov [7] and Nakayama et al. [8] and many others. Jiang and Ren [9] and Jiang et al. [10] used local thermal non-equilibrium model to investigate forced convective heat transfer in a channel filled with a porous medium. They studied the effect of thermal dispersion, variable properties, and particle ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 951 827 3125; fax: +1 951 827 2899. E-mail address: [email protected] (K. Vafai). 0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2011.09.022 diameter, particle thermal conductivity and appropriate boundary conditions. The numerical results were in agreement with their experimental data. Another important parameter affecting the transport phenomena in a porous medium is thermal dispersion. Dispersion needs to be considered if the filtration velocity is large enough for the Forchheimer term to be significant. Amiri and Vafai [6] illustrated the important role of transverse thermal dispersion on forced convection heat transfer in porous media. In addition, according to Kuo and Tien [11], Hsu and Cheng [12], Hunt and Tien [13], Sozen and Vafai [14], Nield [15], and Kuznetsov et al. [16], longitudinal thermal dispersion effects can usually be neglected without causing any significant errors in heat transfer results. However, Kuwahara and Nakayama [17] have suggested that the longitudinal thermal dispersion should also be taken into account. As such for this work, both longitudinal and transverse thermal dispersions will be considered. Electromagnetic wave is an important heat source that is applied in many industrial and household applications since electromagnetic wave can penetrate the surface and is converted into thermal energy very rapidly within the material. There have been a number investigations of natural convection under electromagnetic field, such as Bian et al. [18], Ni et al. [19], Ratanadecho et al. [20], Rattanadecho et al. [21,22], Shigemitsu et al. [23], Wang et al. [24], Dinčov et al. [25], Basak and Meenakshi [26], Cha-um et al. [27] and others. However, the effect of electromagnetic field on forced convection in a porous medium particularly under non-thermal equilibrium is not well understood. There are various effects related to the effects of 326 W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 Nomenclature a1, a2 asf Cp dp Da E F f hsf H H J k K L LTE Nu Pr P p Q Rep t T tan d u V x, y ZH porosity variation parameters, Eq. (24) specific surface area of the packed bed (m1) specific heat capacity (J kg1 K1) particle diameter (m) Darcy number, K 1 =H2 electric field intensity (V m1) the geometric function defined in Eq. (18) frequency of incident wave (Hz) fluid-to-solid heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1) magnetic field intensity (A m1) height of the packed bed (m) unit vector oriented along the pore velocity vector, V p =jV p j thermal conductivity (W m1 K1) permeability (m2) length of the packed bed (m) local thermal equilibrium Nusselt number Prandtl number, lC pf =kf power (W) pressure (Pa) local electromagnetic heat generation term (W m3) particle Reynolds number, qf ue dp =l time (s) temperature (K) dielectric loss coefficient (–) velocity component in the x-direction (ms1) velocity vector (ms1) Cartesian coordinates (m) qffiffiffi k wave impedance (), kg /c an imposed electromagnetic field on non-thermal equilibrium and dispersion in a porous medium that are not well understood and several pertinent issues remain unresolved. The objective of this study is to analyze and demonstrate the effect of electromagnetic field on forced convection in a fluid-saturated porous medium. The effects of the dimensionless electromagnetic wave power (P⁄), and dimensionless electromagnetic wave frequency (f⁄) on the dimensionless temperature field and Nusselt number distribution are discussed. The porous medium is considered to be a packed bed of spherical particles saturated with a fluid. 2. Analysis Forced convection of an incompressible fluid flow through a packed bed of spherical particles subjected to an electromagnetic field as shown in Fig. 1 is considered. The configuration consists of a porous medium that fills inside a rectangular waveguide. Walls of the guide are assumed to be made of metal which approximates a perfect electrical conductor. The monochromic wave in fundamental mode (TE10) is applied in the x-direction. The domain in which the electromagnetic field is analyzed includes the entire region enclosed by the walls of the guide. For temperature and flow fields the computational domain is limited to the region enclosed by the container. The horizontal walls of container are kept at a constant temperature. 2.1. Analysis of the electromagnetic field Maxwell’s equations for TE10 mode are solved to obtain the electromagnetic field inside a rectangular waveguide and the enclosed porous medium. Greek letters a thermal diffusivity (m2 s1) e porosity (–) g dimensionless vertical scale defined in Eq. (35) h dimensionless fluid phase temperature H dimensionless solid phase temperature c permittivity (F m1) u magnetic permeability (H m1) k wavelength (m) l dynamic viscosity (kg m1 s1) q density (kg m3) r electric conductivity (S m1) n dimensionless length scale defined in Eq. (37) Subscripts e inlet f fluid eff effective property m mean s solid w wall x, y, z x, y, z-component 1 asymptotic or free stream Superscripts c cutoff f fluid s solid ⁄ dimensionless quantity Symbols hi ‘local volume average’ of a quantity Maxwell’s equations for TE10 mode [20]: Ey ¼ Ex ¼ Hz ¼ 0;   oEz 1 oHy oHx ¼   rEz ; ot c ox oy   oHx 1 oEz ; ¼ / oy ot   oHy 1 oEz ; ¼ / ox ot ð1Þ ð2Þ ð3Þ ð4Þ where E and H are the electric and magnetic fields, c ¼ c0 cr ¼ c0 ðc0r  jc00r Þ is electric permittivity, / ¼ /0 /r is magnetic permeability, and r is electric conductivity. Boundary and initial conditions: (1) At the walls of the waveguide and cavity, a perfect conducting condition is considered. Therefore, normal components of the magnetic field and tangential components of the electric field vanish at these walls [20]: Hn ¼ 0; Et ¼ 0: ð5Þ (2) At the absorbing plane, Mur’s first order absorbing condition is utilized [20]: oEz oEz ¼ c ; ot ox ð6Þ where ± represents forward and backward directions and c denotes the phase velocity of the propagation wave. (3) At the incident plane, the input microwave source is simulated by [20]: 327 W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the problem under consideration and the corresponding coordinate system. Table 1 Thermal and dielectric properties used in the computations [6,20,26]. Material property Air Water Lead Alumina Soda lime Density, q(kg m3) Specific heat, Cp(J kg1 K1) Thermal conductivity, k(Wm1 K1) Viscosity, l(kg m1 s1)  105 Dielectric constant, cr Loss tangent, tan d 1.1 1008 0.028 1.9 1.0 0.0 989 4180 0.640 57.7 88.15  0.414T + (0.131  102)T2  (0.046  104)T3 0.323  (9.499  103)T + (1.27  104)T2  (6.13  107)T3 7660 448 82 – 6.9 0.0139 3750 1046 26 – 10.8 0.0145 2225 835 1.4 – 7.5 0.0125 Fig. 2. Comparison of dimensionless temperature and the Nusselt number distributions for the present work versus the results of Amiri and Vafai [6] for as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107 and Rep = 10. 328 W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 sinð2pftÞ; a py sinð2pftÞ; sin a Ez;Inc: ¼ Ezin sin Hy;Inc: ¼ Ezin ZH py ð7Þ ð8Þ where f is the frequency of microwave, a is the width of the incidence plane, Z H is the wave impedance, and Ezin is the input value of the electric field intensity. By applying the Poynting theorem, the input value of the electric field intensity is evaluated by the microwave input power as [20]: Ezin rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 4Z H Pin ; ¼ A ð9Þ where Pin is the microwave power input and A is the area of the incident plane. (4) At the interface between different materials, for example air and the porous medium, the continuity condition is invoked as: Et ¼ E0t ; Dn ¼ D0n ; Ht ¼ H0t ; ð10Þ Bn ¼ ð11Þ B0n : (5) At t ¼ 0 all components of E; H are zero. Fig. 3. Comparison of percent error on the average fluid Nusselt number for the present work versus the results of Amiri and Vafai [6] for as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107 and Rep = 10. Fig. 4. Effects of the variations in the electromagnetic field power on the temperature field and the Nusselt number distribution for as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107, Rep = 10 and f⁄ = 4.0. W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 329 Fig. 5. Fluid phase temperature contour in the x–y plane at as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107, Rep = 10 and f⁄ = 4.0 incorporating the variable porosity as well as the axial and lateral thermal dispersions. 2.2. Analysis of flow and heat transfer within a porous medium The schematic configuration of the problem is shown in Fig. 1, where H and L denote the height and length of the packed bed, respectively. The porous medium is considered homogenous, isotropic and is saturated with a fluid. Furthermore, the solid particles are considered to be spherical, uniform shape, and incompressible. The steady state volume-averaged governing equations are [6] Continuity equation: r  hVi ¼ 0: ð12Þ Momentum equation [6]: qf qf F e l l hðV  rÞVi ¼  hVi  pffiffiffiffi ½hVi  hViJ þ r2 hVi  rhpif : ð13Þ e K e K Fluid phase energy equations [6]: ohT f if þ hqf if C pf hVi  rhT f if ot n o   ¼ r  kfeff  rhT f if þ hsf asf hT s is  hT f if þ eQ f : ehqf if C pf ð14Þ Solid phase energy equations [6]: ð1  eÞqs C ps   ohT s is ¼ r  kseff  rhT s is ot    hsf asf hT s is  hT f if þ ð1  eÞQ s ð15Þ where Q is the local electromagnetic heat generation term, which is a function of the electric field and defined as [20]: Q ¼ 2pf c0 c0r ðtan dÞE2z ; ð16Þ where c0r is the relative dielectric constant. The permeability of the packed bed and the geometric function are [6]: 330 K¼ W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 e3 d2p 2 150ð1  eÞ 1:75 F ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi : 150e3 ð17Þ ; ð18Þ The specific surface area of the packed bed can be represented as [6]: asf ¼ 6ð1  eÞ : dp ð19Þ The formulation of the fluid-to-solid heat transfer coefficient in this study is expressed as [6]: 2 hsf ¼ kf 42 þ 1:1Pr1=3 qf udp lf !0:6 3, 5 dp ; ð20Þ when the thermal dispersion effects are present, axial and lateral effective conductivities of fluid phase can be expressed, respectively, as [6]: qf udp kf ; l   qf udp ðkfeff Þy ¼ e þ 0:1Pr kf ; l kseff ¼ ð1  eÞks : ðkfeff Þx ¼  e þ 0:5Pr  ð21Þ ð22Þ ð23Þ In addition, the variation of porosity near the impermeable boundaries can be expressed as [6]: e ¼ e1 1 þ a1 exp   a2 y ; dp ð24Þ where e1 is the free stream porosity while a1 ; a2 are empirical constants. The Nusselt number for both phases can be expressed as [6]: ! ohT f if ; oy y¼0   2H ohT s is : Nus ¼  T w  T ms oy y¼0 Nuf ¼  2H T w  T mf ð25Þ ð26Þ where T mf and T ms are the mixed mean temperatures of the fluid and solid phases, respectively which can be expressed as [6]: 1 T mf ¼ T ms Z H uT f dy; Um H 0 Z 1 H ¼ T s dy; H 0 ð27Þ ð28Þ where Um ¼ 1 H Z 0 H udy: ð29Þ Fig. 6. Effect of the electromagnetic field frequency on the temperature field and Nusselt number distribution for as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107, Rep = 10 and P⁄ = 400. W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 Boundary and initial conditions: From Fig. 1, no slip boundary conditions are applied at all the solid walls which are kept at a constant temperature. Thus, the boundary conditions are as follows: uðx; yÞ ¼ 0 at y ¼ 0; H; T f ðx; yÞ ¼ T s ðx; yÞ ¼ T w T f ðx; yÞ ¼ T s ðx; yÞ ¼ T e at y ¼ 0; H; at x ¼ 0; ð30Þ ð31Þ ð32Þ The inlet and wall temperature are taken as: T e ¼ 300 K; T w ¼ 340 K: A particle diameter of 5.0 mm is used in the computations. The Dielectric and thermal properties are listed in Table 1 [6,20,26]. 3. Numerical simulations Maxwell’s equations (Eqs. (2)–(4)), are solved using the finite difference method. The electric (E) and magnetic (H) field components 331 are discretized using a central differencing scheme (second-order) in both space and time domains. The equations are solved using the leap-frog methodology; the electric field is solved at a given time step, the magnetic field is solved at the next time step, and the process is repeated sequentially. The fluid flow and heat transport within a porous medium are expressed through Eqs. (12)–(15). These equations are coupled to Maxwell’s equations through Eq. (16). Eqs. (12)–(15) are solved numerically using a finite control volume approach along with the SIMPLE algorithm [28]. The proposed discretization conserves the fluxes and avoids generation of a parasitic source. The basic strategy for the finite control volume discretization method is to divide the computational domain into a number of control volumes and then integrate the conservation equations over this control volume within an interval of time [t, t + Dt]. At the boundaries of the computational domain, integrating over half the control volume and taking into account the boundary conditions discretizes the conservation equations and at the corners a quarter of the control volume is utilized. The fully implicit time discretization finite difference scheme is used to arrive at the solution in time. To insure Fig. 7. Fluid phase temperature contour in the x–y plane at as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107, Rep = 10 and P⁄ = 400 incorporating the variable porosity as well as the axial and lateral thermal dispersions. 332 W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 stability of the time-stepping algorithm Dt is chosen to satisfy the courant stability condition [20]: 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Validation Dt 6 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ðDxÞ2 þ ðDyÞ2 c ; ð33Þ and the spatial resolution of each cell satisfies: Dx; Dy 6 kg pffiffiffiffiffi ; 10 cr ð34Þ where kg is the wavelength of microwave in the rectangular waveguide and cr is the relative electric permittivity. The following set of simulation parameters are used to satisfy conditions given by Eqs. (33) and (34): (1) Grid size: Dx ¼ 1:0 mm and Dy ¼ 1:0 mm. (2) Time steps: Dt ¼ 2  1012 s and Dt ¼ 0:01 s are used corresponding to electromagnetic field and temperature field calculations, respectively. (3) Relative error in the iteration procedures is ensured to be less than 106. Fig. 8. Flow field in the x–y plane for as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107, Rep = 0.1 and f⁄ = 4.0 incorporating the variable porosity as well as the axial and lateral thermal dispersions. The computational results are validated with the numerical results by Amiri and Vafai [6]. The following parameters are used to generate the results: dp = 5 mm, e1 = 0.37, a1 = 1.7, a2 = 6, as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107 and Rep = 10. The comparison of dimensionless temperature fields, Nusselt number distributions and percent error on the average Nusselt numbers are displayed in Figs. 2 and 3. Fig. 3 illustrates the comparison of the percent error on the average fluid Nusselt number. Overall, our results (other than the apparent misplaced curve of Vafai and Amiri [6] for cases 1 & 2 in Fig. 2(d)) are in excellent agreement with those by Amiri and Vafai [6]. The results are presented in a non-dimensional form, such as dimensionless fluid and solid phase temperature. These dimensionless groups are defined as: h ¼ ðT w  T f Þ=ðT w  T mf Þ; H ¼ ðT w  T s Þ=ðT w  T ms Þ. The temperature field and Nusselt number are plotted against a dimensionless vertical scale, g, and a dimensionless length, n respectively defined as [6]: g¼ yc1 n1=2 ; ð35Þ Fig. 9. Flow field in the x–y plane for as/af = 4.87, Da = 5.32  107, Rep = 0.1 and P⁄ = 1600 incorporating the variable porosity as well as the axial and lateral thermal dispersions. W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 333 where c1 is the free stream shape parameter and n is the dimensionless length scale expressed as [6]: c1 ¼ e1 rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi x n¼ : L K1 ; ð36Þ ð37Þ The temperature profile and velocity field are presented at the middle of the porous medium or n = 0.5. The dimensionless electromagnetic power and electromagnetic frequency are defined as: P ; kf HðT w  T e Þ f f ¼ ; fc10 P ¼ ð38Þ ð39Þ where fc10 is the cut off frequency (lowest propagation frequency) of the microwave in TE10 mode. 4.2. Thermal dispersion effects The effects of electromagnetic field on thermal dispersion are presented in Figs. 4–7. The physical data utilized in these figures are: as =af ¼ 4:87; Da ¼ 5:32  107 and Rep ¼ 10. Fig. 4 shows the effects of variations in the electromagnetic field power. The non-dimensional power varies from 0 to 1600 at f  ¼ 4:0. The dimensionless temperature fields are shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b) while Fig. 4(c) and (d) demonstrate the Nusselt number distributions. As expected, both of the temperature and the Nusselt number values increase with an increase in the electromagnetic power. This is because an increase in the electromagnetic power results in a higher heat generation rate inside the packed bed. It can be observed that the temperature and Nusselt number values are higher when thermal dispersion is excluded (case 1) as compared to when it is included (case 4). The results reveal that the longitudinal dispersion can be neglected as it does not affect the results. Fig. 5 shows the temperature contours in the x–y plane while incorporating the variable porosity and dispersion effects. As can be seen in Fig. 5, besides the walls, higher temperatures occur in the middle of the packed bed because the electric field density in the TE10 mode is high around the center region of the waveguide. Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate the effect of variations in the electromagnetic field frequency. The frequency is varied from 0 to 8 at P⁄ = 400. Fig. 6(a) and (b) show the dimensionless temperature profile whereas the Nusselt number distributions are depicted in Fig. 6(c) and (d), respectively. Fig. 7 displays the effect of variations in the electromagnetic frequency on the fluid phase temperature contours. The temperature profiles (Fig. 6) qualitatively follows the temperature contour plots (Fig. 7). The results show that the highest temperature values do not correspond to the highest electromagnetic frequencies. The highest temperature values, for the cases considered here, correspond to f⁄ = 2.0, while f⁄ = 8.0 produces the lowest values of the temperature and Nusselt numbers. Our results have established the existence of an optimum value for the frequency in terms of attaining the maximum temperature within the porous medium. This is because a high frequency electromagnetic wave has a short wavelength and a smaller penetration depth than a low frequency wave. Thus most electromagnetic waves are absorbed at the entrance region of the medium. Figs. 8 and 9 show the effect of variations in the electromagnetic power and frequency on the flow field. The electromagnetic power variations from 0 to 1600 at f⁄ = 2.0 and frequency variations from 0 to 8 at P⁄ = 1600 are considered. The results are shown for: as =af ¼ 4:87; Da ¼ 5:32  107 and Rep ¼ 0:1. Flow fields within the sample at different powers are displayed in Figs. 8(b), (c) Fig. 10. Effect of the frequency variations on the average fluid Nusselt number while accounting for both axial and transverse thermal dispersion effects (as/ af = 4.87, P⁄ = 1600). and 9(b). As can be clearly seen the fluid movement is further augmented as the power increases. The fluid circulation starts from a corner near the inlet surface where the incident wave propagates through it. Fig. 9(a)–(c) depict the flow patterns at non-dimensionalized electromagnetic frequencies of 2, 4 and 8, respectively. The fields are somewhat similar. However, the magnitudes of velocities are significantly altered. Based on the earlier assessment from Fig. 6, the largest flow augmentation is expected to occur at f  ¼ 2:0. Fig. 9 confirms this expectation. Fig. 10 shows the effect of frequency variations on the average fluid Nusselt numbers while incorporating the axial and transverse thermal dispersion effects. The Nusselt number values are given within the parenthesis in Fig. 10. The non-dimensionalized electromagnetic frequencies are varied from 0 to 8 at P⁄ = 1600. It is found that the Darcy number is the primary parameter that affects the magnitude of the Nusselt numbers. It is also shown that the f⁄ = 2.0 has a more profound effect on the heat transfer process. 4.3. Local thermal equilibrium (LTE) assumption In order to examine the local thermal equilibrium assumption, the temperature distributions for the fluid and solid are considered at all point. We define a percent variation in the temperature values compared to those obtained based on the LTE assumption [6]: %LTE ¼ hði;jÞ  Hði;jÞ  100: The extent of variations in the temperature values is used to classify the appropriateness of the LTE assumption. The qualitative ratings for LTE assumption [6] are expressed as: less than 1% as very good, 1–5% as good, 5–10% as fair, 10–15% as poor and more than 15% as very poor. Fig. 11 demonstrates the qualitative assessment with respect to the LTE assumption for a substantial range of variations in the thermophysical properties. As such the results are presented for as =af equal to 4.87 and 42.82, respectively while incorporating the porosity variation and thermal dispersion effects. The case without any electromagnetic effect is presented in Fig. 11(a) and (d) [6] as a benchmark to assess the electromagnetic field effect on LTE. Fig. 11(b)–(f) show the effects of the electromagnetic power and frequency on the validity of the LTE assumption. It can be clearly seen that in addition to the Darcy and the particle Reynolds numbers, electromagnetic power has a substantial effect on the validity of the LTE assumption. 334 W. Klinbun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 325–335 Fig. 11. Qualitative assessment for LTE for the cases with as/af equal to 4.87 and 42.82 incorporating the variable porosity as well as the axial and lateral thermal dispersions. As can be seen the local thermal equilibrium assumption deteriorates as the Darcy number ðDaÞ or the solid-to-fluid thermal diffusivity ratio or the electromagnetic power (P⁄) increase. Acknowledgement The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work provided by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF). 5. Conclusions The effect of an electromagnetic field on transport through a porous medium is analyzed in this work. To this end, the transient Maxwell’s equations are utilized to describe the electromagnetic field distribution inside the waveguide and the porous medium while the flow field is simulated using the Brinkman–Forchheimer extended Darcy model. Further, the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model is employed to express the heat transport phenomena within a porous medium. This work reveals the effects of the pertinent electromagnetic and thermophysical parameters on transport through a porous medium when exposed to an electromagnetic field. The following summarizes the conclusions arrived at in this work: (1) The computational results are in excellent agreement with the results given by Amiri and Vafai [6]. 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