Introduction
Heat exchangers are commonly used in a wide variety of applications such as thermal power plants, refrigeration and air conditioning systems and automobiles. Various techniques [1] have been developed to improve the overall thermal performance of such devices resulting in the reduction of their size and the cost
of operation. These methods can be classified either as active methods, which require an external power such as electric or acoustic fields and surface vibrations or as passive methods, which employ for the improvement of heat transfer surfaces of special geometries (fins, baffles etc.) or additives for fluids. The insertion of a porous substrate can be considered among the passive techniques, but however it leads to an increase of pressure drop. It is then necessary to find a solution which constitutes a compromise between enhancement of heat transfer and reduction of pressure
drop. Several research works have been conducted in this context, we can cited the analytical solution obtained by Chikh et al. [2] for the problem of forced convection under fully developed conditions in an annular duct partially filled with a porous layer attached to the inner tube subjected to a constant heat flux. A similar problem
was treated by the same authors [3] but with an isothermal boundary condition and by using the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model. They concluded that porous material can be used for insulation or enhancement of heat transfer according to its thermophysical properties. In another work, Chikh et al. [4] analyzed the effect of porous matrix addition on hydrodynamic and thermal lengths. Alkam and Al-Nimr [5] inserted porous substrates at both sides of the inner cylinder. They found that the improvement in the heat exchanger efficiency is important especially at high capacity
ratios and that there is a critical value of the substrate thickness beyond which there is no substantial increase in the heat exchanger performance. A thermodynamic analysis was conducted by Allouache and Chikh [6] in a double pipe heat exchanger provided with a porous layer. They concluded that the case of an annular gap
completely filled with a porous medium of high effective thermal conductivity leads to a substantial reduction of the entropy generation rate. Kahalerras and Targui [7] and Tagui and Kahalerras [8] showed that the use of porous fins and baffles may enhance substantially the heat transfer at the expense of a reasonable pressure
drop for optimal values of the porous medium properties. Using the Darcy–Brinkman model, Hashemi et al. [9] obtained an analytical solution for the problem of forced convection in micro-annulus filled with a porous medium. Two cases were considered: outer cylinder subjected to a constant heat flux and insulated inner cylinder and vice versa. Another method for the enhancement of heat transfer is the
addition of an oscillating component to the mean flow. The great interest carried to this kind of flow is due to the fact that it is encountered in many engineering and natural systems such as regenerators and heat exchangers of stirling and pulse tube cryocoolers, refrigerating systems, collectors and human circulatory system. However, the studies interested by the combined effects of pulsation and porous media are less numerous. In this context, we can mention the numerical study conducted by Sözen and Vafai [10] in a packed bed subjected to oscillating inlet boundary conditions for pressure and temperature.