Pump power gain for heated porous medium channel flows

A practical engineering, pump power reduction, designed for heating the flow of a variable viscosity liquid to achieve a pressure drop in heated porous medium channel flows, was discussed. It was found that heating a channel for liquid flows reduced the viscosity, consequently resulting into pressure drop. Pressure drop versus fluid speed results obtained through numerical simulations and a proposed Modified Hazen-Dupuit-Darcy (M-HDD) model were also used in the analysis. The pumping power reduction by heating the fluid and the overall energy of the system was shown to respond differently to changes in inlet temperature and heat flux respectively.