%0 Journal Article %A Ruidas , Bidhan C. %A Ganguly, Somenath %D 2014 %I Begell House %K temperature, porosity, conduction, convection front %N 2 %P 179-184 %R 10.1615/JPorMedia.v17.i2.80 %T PROGRESSION OF A THERMAL FRONT IN POROUS MEDIA OF FINITE LENGTH DUE TO THE INJECTION OF AN INERT GAS %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/49dcde6d4c0809db,5182a7c201a3adfd,513c25a3029897f2.html %V 17 %X Thermal conduction and convection, associated with the flow of a gas through porous media are of importance for applications, e.g., heat trapping, thermal protection, and enhanced oil recovery. The analytical model generally considers a boundary at an infinite distance from the inlet. This article tracks the progression of the thermal front when the boundary is within a finite distance from the inlet. The system of equations was solved using numerical methods for a step change in temperature at the inlet. The dimensionless numbers representing the effects of conduction and convection, the heat capacities of the solid and the flowing phases, and the void fractions were introduced. The importance of the operating parameters on the progression of the thermal front and its dispersion were studied using these dimensionless numbers. For the values of the parameters considered in this article, the temperature at the center of the packed bed reached half the step size at the inlet after injection of about 300 pore volumes of inert gas. A similar system of equations was also solved analytically in this article for comparison with the simulated temperature profile. The extent to which the model can be used in analyzing the progression of the thermal front in a porous medium of finite length is discussed. %8 2014-03-03