Analytical and numerical approach to convective heat transfer through a granular target with gas cooling

Abstract The paper presents an analytical and a numerical approach to studying the effectiveness of the cooling of a granular target by gaseous helium. The increase in the target temperature is caused by an impinging beam which deposits a very high power of 138 kW inside the limited volume of the target. A porous domain approach is used to model the flow of helium through the packed-bed target. An efficient one-dimensional analytical model is proposed to describe the transverse flow of gas helium, which accounts for its compressibility and the heat exchange between the target spheres and the cooling gas. The predictions of this model are shown to be in good agreement with more complex numerical studies done with Fluent.