Heat transfers in porous media. Conduction, convection, radiant transfer

Multiple physico-chemical and transport phenomena take place in porous media. The study of these phenomena requires the knowledge of fluid storage, transfer and mechanical properties of these media. Like all polyphasic heterogenous systems, these properties depend on the morphology of the matrix and of the phenomena interacting in the different phases. This makes the heat transfers in porous media a particularly huge field of researches. This article makes a synthesis of these researches. Content: 1 - classification and characterization of porous media; 2 - modeling of transfer phenomena; 3 - heat transfer by conduction: concept of equivalent thermal conductivity (ETC), modeling of conduction heat transfer, ETC determination; 4 - heat transfer by convection: modeling of convection heat transfer, natural convection (in confined media, along surfaces or impermeable bodies immersed in a saturated porous medium), forced and mixed convection; 5 - radiant heat transfer: energy status equation, approximate solutions of the radiant transfer equation, use of the approximate solutions: case of fibrous insulating materials; 6 - conclusion. (J.S.)