Baloyi, JacobinBello-Ochende, TundeMeyer, Josua P.2012-09-142012-09-142012-08J. Baloyi, T. Ballo-Ochende & J.P. Meyer, Minimization of thermal resistance in an air cooled porous matrix made up of solid spheres with heat generation, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 966-970 (2012), doi: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2012.05.013.0735-1933 (print)1879-0178 (online)10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2012.05.013http://hdl.handle.net/2263/19782In this paper an analytical model was developed to minimize the thermal resistance of an air cooled porous matrix made up of solid spheres with internal heat generation. This was done under the assumption of local thermal equilibrium. The analytical solution of the optimum sphere diameter was found to be independent of the heat generation rate of the solid spheres, but was dependent on the applied pressure drop and fluid properties. The analytical model compared very well to a numerical model found in a computational fluid dynamics code when air and liquid water properties were used for the fluid phase and wood and silica/sand properties were used for the solid phase.en© 2012 Elsevier. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol 37, issue 7, Augustus 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2012.05.013.Porous mediaOptimizationLocal thermal equilibriumInternal heat generationThermodynamic equilibriumHeat -- TransmissionPorous materials -- Thermal propertiesComputational fluid dynamicsPostprint Article