The transport of heat through a porous medium in the presence of exterior forces, generally produced by the Earth's gravitational field and/or a pressure gradient, is called conduction when the Darcean fluid is static (motionless), and convection when the Darcean fluid is in motion. It is customary to use the term convection also to describe the motion which arises from the density differences due to temperature gradients within the Darcean fluid. We think that because this last phenomenon is more general it should be given a specific name; here we call it thermal flow. In the sense of the above definitions, convection and thermal flow are two distinct phenomena (they occur together, in underground combustion for instance), and the convective motion which arises when a Darcean l'luid is in contact with a source of heat is a particular case of thermal flow. Thermal flow occurs naturally and is important in many geophysical and industrial problems, particularly in oil exploration, and in the petroleum, chemical and nuclear industries (for instance, in the evaluation of capability of heat-removal from a hypothetical accident in a nuclear reactor). It can play a part in the transfer of heat from the deep interior of the Earth to a shallow depth in the geothermal regions. However, in the field of energy conversion little attention has yet been paid to the insulating characteristics of the saturated porous materials introduced in some enclosures (storage tanks) to decrease the convective and radiative transfer of heat.

Although the empirical treatment of fluid flow and heat transfer in porous media is over a century old, only in the last three decades has the transport in these heterogeneous systems been addressed in detail. So far, single-phase flows in porous media have been treated or at least formulated satisfactorily, while the subject of two-phase flow and the related heat-transfer in porous media is still in its infancy. This book identifies the principles of transport in porous media and compares the avalaible predictions based on theoretical treatments of various transport mechanisms with the existing experimental results. The theoretical treatment is based on the volume-averaging of the momentum and energy equations with the closure conditions necessary for obtaining solutions. While emphasizing a basic understanding of heat transfer in porous media, this book does not ignore the need for predictive tools; whenever a rigorous theoretical treatment of a phenomena is not avaliable, semi-empirical and empirical treatments are given.

This Book concentrates the available knowledge on rotating fluid flow and heat transfer in porous media in one single reference. Dr. Vadasz develops the fundamental theory of rotating flow and heat transfer in porous media and introduces systematic classification and identification of the relevant problems. An initial distinction between rotating flows in isothermal heterogeneous porous systems and natural convection in homogeneous non-‐isothermal porous systems provides the two major classes of problems to be considered. A few examples of solutions to selected problems are presented, highlighting the significant impact of rotation on the flow in porous media.

Focusing on heat transfer in porous media, this book covers recent advances in nano and macro’ scales. Apart from introducing heat flux bifurcation and splitting within porous media, it highlights two-phase flow, nanofluids, wicking, and convection in bi-disperse porous media. New methods in modeling heat and transport in porous media, such as pore-scale analysis and Lattice–Boltzmann methods, are introduced. The book covers related engineering applications, such as enhanced geothermal systems, porous burners, solar systems, transpiration cooling in aerospace, heat transfer enhancement and electronic cooling, drying and soil evaporation, foam heat exchangers, and polymer-electrolyte fuel cells.

The transport of heat through a porous medium in the presence of exterior forces, generally produced by the Earth's gravitational field and/or a pressure gradient, is called conduction when the Darcean fluid is static (motionless), and convection when the Darcean fluid is in motion. It is customary to use the term convection also to describe the motion which arises from the density differences due to temperature gradients within the Darcean fluid. We think that because this last phenomenon is more general it should be given a specific name; here we call it thermal flow. In the sense of the above definitions, convection and thermal flow are two distinct phenomena (they occur together, in underground combustion for instance), and the convective motion which arises when a Darcean l'luid is in contact with a source of heat is a particular case of thermal flow. Thermal flow occurs naturally and is important in many geophysical and industrial problems, particularly in oil exploration, and in the petroleum, chemical and nuclear industries (for instance, in the evaluation of capability of heat-removal from a hypothetical accident in a nuclear reactor). It can play a part in the transfer of heat from the deep interior of the Earth to a shallow depth in the geothermal regions. However, in the field of energy conversion little attention has yet been paid to the insulating characteristics of the saturated porous materials introduced in some enclosures (storage tanks) to decrease the convective and radiative transfer of heat.

Thermal flow in porous media is important in a wide range of areas, including oil recovery, geothermal development, the chemical and nuclear industries, civil engineering, energy storage and energy conversion. This monograph uses a systematic, rigorous and unified treatment to provide a general understanding of the phenomena involved. General equations for single- or multiphase flow (including an arbitrary number of components inside each phase), diffusion and chemical reactions are presented. The boundary conditions which may be imposed, the non-dimensional parameters, the structure of the solutions, the stability of finite amplitude solutions and many other related topics are also studied. Although the treatment is basically mathematical, specific physical problems are also dealt with. There are two major fields of application: natural convection and underground combustion. Both are discussed in detail. Various examples with exact or numerical solutions in the case of bounded or unbounded domains are presented, accompanied by extensive comment.

This textbook provides a general overview of porous media flow, and introduces various theoretical tools to characterize and predict the flow. It has been written for graduate and advanced graduate students in various engineering disciplines. It includes the topics such as fluid flow, conduction, convection, and radiation in porous media as well as porous medium aspects of biological systems. The concepts are supported by numerous solved examples to aid self-learning in students. The textbook also contains illustrated diagrams for better understanding of the concepts. This textbook will be useful for the core course of "Flow through Porous media" for graduate and advanced graduate students in various engineering disciplines. This textbook will also serve as a refresher course for researchers who are engaged in research related to porous media flow.