Forced convection of a power-law fluid in a porous channel – numerical solutions

A detailed numerical study of laminar forced convection in a porous channel which contains a fibrous medium saturated with a power-law fluid was performed. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer results are presented for a configuration that has uniform heat flux or uniform temperature heating at the walls. The flow in the porous medium was modeled using the modified Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for power law fluids in which the non-Darcy effects of inertia and boundary were considered. Parametric studies were conducted to examine the effects of Darcy number, power law index, inertia parameter and Prandtl number. The results indicate that when the power law index is decreased, the velocity gradient near the walls increases but these effects are reduced gradually as the Darcy number decreases until the Darcy regime (Da≤10⁻⁶) is reached in which case the effects of power law index become negligible. As the power law index is decreased, the thermal boundary layer thickness decreases significantly only in the non-Darcy regime. Consequently, as the power law index decreases, the fully developed Nusselt number increases considerably in the non-Darcy regime whereas in the Darcy regime the change in Nusselt number is very small. As the Prandtl number increases, the local Nusselt number increases and this effect is more significant for shear thinning fluids (n<1.0). Received on 2 March 1998     

Flow near the permeable boundary of a porous medium: An experimental investigation using LDA

 Fluid flow at the interface of a porous medium and an open channel is the governing phenomenon in a number of processes of industrial importance. Traditionally, this has been modeled by applying the Brinkman’s modification of Darcy’s law to obtain the velocity profile in terms of an additional parameter known as the “apparent viscosity” or the “slip coefficient”. To test this ad hoc approach, a detailed experimental investigation of the flow was conducted using Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) in the close vicinity of the permeable boundary of a porous medium. The porous medium used in the experiments consisted of a network of continuous glass strands woven together in a random fashion. A Hele–Shaw cell was partially filled with a fibrous preform such that an open channel flow is coupled with the Darcy flow inside the preform through the permeable interface of the preform. The open channel portion of the Hele–Shaw cell also acts as an ideal porous medium of known in-plane permeability which is much higher than the permeability of the fibrous porous medium. A viscous fluid is injected at a constant flow rate through the above arrangement and a saturated and steady flow is established through the cell. Using LDA, steady state velocity profiles are accurately measured by traversing across the cell in the direction perpendicular to the flow. A series of experiments were conducted in which fluid viscosity, flow rate, solid volume fraction of the porous medium and depth of the Hele–Shaw cell were varied. For each and every case in which the conditions for Hele–Shaw approximation were valid, the depth of the boundary layer zone or the screening length inside the fibrous preform was found to be of the order of the channel depth. This is much larger as compared to the Brinkman’s prediction of the screening length which is of the order of √K, where K is the permeability of the fibrous porous medium. Based on this finding, we modified the boundary condition in the Brinkman’s solution and found that the velocity profile results compared well with the experimental data for the planar geometry and the fibrous preforms for volume fractions of 7%, 14% and 21% for Hele–Shaw cell depths of 1.6 and 3.175 mm. For a cell depth of 4.8 cm, in which the Hele–Shaw approximation was not valid, the boundary layer thickness or the screening length was found to be less than the mold or channel depth but was still much larger than the Brinkman’s prediction. Received: 10 May 1996 / Accepted: 26 August 1996     

The effect of a transition layer between a fluid and a porous medium: shear flow in a channel

Flow in a three-layer channel is modeled analytically. The channel consists of a transition layer sandwiched between a porous medium and a fluid clear of solid material. Within the transition layer, the reciprocal of the permeability varies linearly across the channel. The Brinkman model is used for the momentum equations for the porous medium layer and the transition layer. The velocity profile is obtained in closed form in terms of Airy, exponential, and polynomial functions. The overall volume flux and boundary friction factors are calculated and compared with values obtained with a two-layer model employing the Beavers–Joseph condition at the interface between a Darcy porous medium and a clear fluid.     

Generalized Plain Couette Flow and Heat Transfer in a Composite Channel

An analytical study of fluid flow and heat transfer in a composite channel is presented. The channel walls are maintained at different constant temperatures in such a way that the temperatures do not allow for free convection. The upper plate is considered to be moving and the lower plate is fixed. The flow is modeled using Darcy–Lapwood–Brinkman equation. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are included in the energy equation. By applying suitable matching and boundary conditions, an exact solution has been obtained for the velocity and temperature distributions in the two regions of the composite channel. The effects of various parameters such as the porous medium parameter, viscosity ratio, height ratio, conductivity ratio, Eckert number, and Prandtl number on the velocity and temperature fields are presented graphically and discussed.     

A numerical method for forced convection in porous and homogeneous fluid domains coupled at interface by stress jump

A numerical method was developed for flows involving an interface between a homogeneous fluid and a porous medium. It is based on the finite volume method with body‐fitted and multi‐block grids. The Brinkman–Forcheimmer extended model was used to govern the flow in the porous medium region. At its interface, the flow boundary condition imposed is a shear stress jump, which includes the inertial effect, together with a continuity of normal stress. The thermal boundary condition is continuity of temperature and heat flux. The forced convection through a porous insert over a backward‐facing step is investigated. The results are presented with flow configurations for different Darcy numbers, 10^?2 to 10^?5, porosity from 0.2 to 0.8, Reynolds number from 10 to 800, and the ratio of insert length to channel height from 0.1 to 0.3. The heat transfer is improved by using porous insert. To enhance the heat transfer with minimal frictional losses, it is preferable to have a medium length of insert with medium Darcy number, and larger Reynolds number. The interfacial stress jump coefficients β and β₁ were varied from ?1 to 1, and within this range the average and local lower‐wall Nusselt numbers are not sensitive to the parameters. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mixed Convection in a Vertical Porous Channel

A numerical study of mixed convection in a vertical channel filled with a porous medium including the effect of inertial forces is studied by taking into account the effect of viscous and Darcy dissipations. The flow is modeled using the Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy equations. The two boundaries are considered as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal and isothermal–isoflux for the left and right walls of the channel and kept either at equal or at different temperatures. The governing equations are solved numerically by finite difference method with Southwell–Over–Relaxation technique for extended Darcy model and analytically using perturbation series method for Darcian model. The velocity and temperature fields are obtained for various porous parameter, inertia effect, product of Brinkman number and Grashof number and the ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number for equal and different wall temperatures. Nusselt number at the walls is also determined for three types of thermal boundary conditions. The viscous dissipation enhances the flow reversal in the case of downward flow while it counters the flow in the case of upward flow. The Darcy and inertial drag terms suppress the flow. It is found that analytical and numerical solutions agree very well for the Darcian model. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Numerical and analytical study to estimate the effect of two length scales upon the permeability of a fibrous porous medium

A fibrous porous medium with two length scales is modeled as a bed of porous cylinders aligned perpendicular to the flow of viscous fluid. The flow behavior is described using Stokes and Darcy flow equations in the regions around (higher length scale) and within the cylinders (lower length scale) respectively. The typical ratio of higher and lower length-scale regions enable us to invoke lubrication approximation and simplify the equations to develop a closed form solution for the overall permeability of this dual-scale porous medium. A parametric analysis is performed to explore the dependence of permeability on factors such as the volumetric ratio of higher and lower length-scale regions, permeability and size of inclusions in the smaller length-scale region. The analytical model is compared with the numerical results and the trend is compared with the experiments.     

Multiscale Modeling of Colloid and Fluid Dynamics in Porous Media Including an Evolving Microstructure

We consider colloidal dynamics and single-phase fluid flow within a saturated porous medium in two space dimensions. A new approach in modeling pore clogging and porosity changes on the macroscopic scale is presented. Starting from the pore scale, transport of colloids is modeled by the Nernst?CPlanck equations. Here, interaction with the porous matrix due to (non-)DLVO forces is included as an additional transport mechanism. Fluid flow is described by incompressible Stokes equations with interaction energy as forcing term. Attachment and detachment processes are modeled by a surface reaction rate. The evolution of the underlying microstructure is captured by a level set function. The crucial point in completing this model is to set up appropriate boundary conditions on the evolving solid?Cliquid interface. Their derivation is based on mass conservation. As a result of an averaging procedure by periodic homogenization in a level set framework, on the macroscale we obtain Darcy??s law and a modified averaged convection?Cdiffusion equation with effective coefficients due to the evolving microstructure. These equations are supplemented by microscopic cell problems. Time- and space-dependent averaged coefficient functions explicitly contain information of the underlying geometry and also information of the interaction potential. The theoretical results are complemented by numerical computations of the averaged coefficients and simulations of a heterogeneous multiscale scenario. Here, we consider a radially symmetric setting, i.e., in particular we assume a locally periodic geometry consisting of circular grains. We focus on the interplay between attachment and detachment reaction, colloidal interaction forces, and the evolving microstructure. Our model contributes to the understanding of the effects and processes leading to porosity changes and pore clogging from a theoretical point of view.     

Analytical investigation of the fluid flow in the interface region between a porous medium and a clear fluid in channels partially filled with a porous medium

In this paper analytical solutions for the steady fully developed laminar fluid flow in the parallel-plate and cylindrical channels partially filled with a porous medium and partially with a clear fluid are presented. The Brinkman-extended Darcy equation is utilized to model the flow in a porous region. The solutions account for the boundary effects and for the stress jump boundary condition at the interface recently suggested by Ochoa-Tapia and Whitaker. The dependence of the velocity on the Darcy number and on the adjustable coefficient in the stress jump boundary condition is investigated. It is shown that accounting for a jump in the shear stress at the interface essentially influences velocity profiles.     

多孔介质——自由流界面应力跳跃条件下流动特性解析解

对非对称多孔介质--自由流复合通道内多孔介质内部及多孔介质与自由流体界面处复杂质量、动量输运特性进行研究. 在多孔介质区采用Brinkman-extended Darcy模型并结合速度连续,剪切应力跳跃的界面条件对此复合通道内流体的传递现象进行求解,提出了考虑界面应力跳跃时非对称复合通道各区域流体运动速度及摩擦系数的解析式,分析了界面应力跳跃系数,达西数及无量纲多孔层偏心厚度对流体速度及摩擦系数的影响. 结果表明:改变界面性质可在一定条件下明显控制各区域流体速度分布;在达西数、多孔层偏心厚度一定情况下,界面应力系数的增大会使界面流速减小,而使流体摩擦系数增大,特别是界面应力系数小于0的情况下变化更明显,此时若不考虑界面应力系数则会造成较大误差. 当界面应力系数及多孔层偏心厚度均为较小负数值时,改变多孔层偏心厚度对界面速度的影响要大于改变界面应力系数的情况;而当界面应力系数及多孔层偏心厚度为较大正数值时,情况则相反. 较大达西数下,界面应力系数及多孔层偏心厚度对流体摩擦系数的影响均较大,继续减小达西数至一定程度时,界面应力系数对流体摩擦系数的影响可忽略不计而认为只与多孔层偏心厚度相关,且对较大多孔层偏心厚度更敏感.      

Upscaling the flow of generalised Newtonian fluids through anisotropic porous media

The homogenisation method with multiple scale expansions is used to investigate the slow and isothermal flow of generalised Newtonian fluids through anisotropic porous media. From this upscaling it is shown that the first-order macroscopic pressure gradient can be defined as the gradient of a macroscopic viscous dissipation potential, with respect to the first-order volume averaged fluid velocity. The macroscopic dissipation potential is the volume-averaged of local dissipation potential. Using this property, guidelines are proposed to build macroscopic tensorial permeation laws within the framework defined by the theory of anisotropic tensor functions and by using macroscopic isodissipation surfaces. A quantitative numerical study is then performed on a 3D fibrous medium and with a Carreau–Yasuda fluid in order to illustrate the theoretical results deduced from the upscaling.     

Spatial decay estimates for the Brinkman and Darcy flows in a semi-infinite cylinder

The flow of a fluid through a porous medium is often modeled by the Brinkman or the Darcy system. In this paper we investigate Saint-Venant type decay of solutions for both systems when the medium is confined to a semi-infinite cylinder and appropriate homogeneous initial and boundary values are assumed. Received: February 1, 1997     

Numerical simulation of non-Darcian flow through a porous medium

This work reports on fluid flow in a fluid-saturated porous medium, accounting for the boundary and inertial effects in the momentum equation. The flow is simulated by Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy formulation (DFB), using MAC (Marker And Cell) and Chorin pressure iteration method. The method is validated by comparison with analytic results. The effect of Reynolds number, Darcy number, porosity and viscosity ratio on velocity is investigated. As a result, it is found that Darcy number has a decisive influence on pressure as well as velocity, and the effect of viscosity ratio on velocity is very strong given the Darcy number. Additional key findings include unreasonable choice of effective viscosity can involve loss of important physical information.     

Transition layer thickness in a fluid-porous medium of multi-sized spherical beads

Momentum and mass transfer at fluid–porous interfaces occur in many technical and natural applications. The vertical extend below a fluid–porous interface within which the free fluid velocity reduces to a constant Darcy velocity in the porous medium is known as Brinkman layer. Recently, the Brinkman layer thickness (δ) has been measured for a porous bed of mono-sized spherical beads, and was found to be in the order of the particle diameter (d). In this study, we investigate a porous medium made of multi-sized spherical beads. The measured averaged interfacial velocity field clearly indicated that, in the case of multi-sized beads, δ is in the order of a characteristic diameter given by with x _i and d _i being the weight fraction and diameter of the component i in the mixture.     

Fully Developed Mixed Convection Flow in a Vertical Channel Containing Porous and Fluid Layer with Isothermal or Isoflux Boundaries

An analysis of fully developed combined free and forced convective flow in a fluid saturated porous medium channel bounded by two vertical parallel plates is presented. The flow is modeled using Brinkman equation model. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are also included in the energy equation. Three types of thermal boundary conditions such as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal, and isothermal–isoflux for the left–right walls of the channel are considered. Analytical solutions for the governing ordinary differential equations are obtained by perturbation series method. In addition, closed form expressions for the Nusselt number at both the left and right channel walls are derived. Results have been presented for a wide range of governing parameters such as porous parameter, ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number, viscosity ratio, width ratio, and conductivity ratio on velocity, and temperature fields. It is found that the presence of porous matrix in one of the region reduces the velocity and temperature.     

Stochastic Flow Simulation and Particle Transport in a 2D Layer of Random Porous Medium

A stochastic numerical method is developed for simulation of flows and particle transport in a 2D layer of porous medium. The hydraulic conductivity is assumed to be a random field of a given statistical structure, the flow is modeled in the layer with prescribed boundary conditions. Numerical experiments are carried out by solving the Darcy equation for each sample of the hydraulic conductivity by a direct solver for sparse matrices, and tracking Lagrangian trajectories in the simulated flow. We present and analyze different Eulerian and Lagrangian statistical characteristics of the flow such as transverse and longitudinal velocity correlation functions, longitudinal dispersion coefficient, and the mean displacement of Lagrangian trajectories. We discuss the effect of long-range correlations of the longitudinal velocities which we have found in our numerical simulations. The related anomalous diffusion is also analyzed.     

Unsteady generalized Couette flow in composite microchannel

A numerical study is reported on the fully developed unsteady laminar fluid flow in microchannel parallel-plates partially filled with a uniform porous medium and partially filled with a clear fluid. The flow is induced by the movement of one of the plates and the pressure gradient. The Brinkman-extended Darcy model is utilized to model the flow in the porous region, while the Stokes equation is used in the clear fluid region. A theoretical analysis is also presented for the fully developed steady flow to find closedform expressions for the interfacial velocity and the velocity and skin frictions at the bounding plates. Numerical computations shows excellent agreement between the closedform solutions for fully developed steady flow and the numerical solution to unsteady flow at large values of time.     

Porous Medium Flow and an Overlying Parallel Flow: PIV Interrogation Area and Overlaps, Interfacial Location, and Depth Ratio Effects

This paper presents an experimental work aimed at studying the effects of particle image velocimetry (PIV) interrogation area and overlaps, location of the interface, as well as depth ratios on the flow at the interface between a model porous medium and an overlying free flow. The porous media were modeled using square arrays of circular rods of diameter and porosity 0.88, filling fraction ranging from 0.47 to 0.75, and depth-to-porous medium pore ratio ranging from 5.75 to 13.69. Using a pressure-driven refractive-index matched viscous fluid, the bulk Reynolds number was kept approximately constant at a regime in which inertia was not a factor. PIV measurements were made across various streamwise-transverse planes of the test section. For the present tests, it was observed that PIV interrogation area (IA) and overlap effects on the interfacial velocities are negligible when the IA sizes in dimensionless units ranged from 0.017 to 0.145 in flow parameters and 0.036 to 0.300 in porous media parameters. Other dimensionless slip parameters are however significantly affected. Interfacial slip parameters of porous media models were found to change by as much as 120 % with change in the interfacial location. The interfacial location sensitivity was also found to be dependent on the direction of deviation, the type of porous medium, and depth ratios. Volume averaged results showed that for flows over models of porous media, the depth-to-porous medium pore ratio effects are more prominent compared with the filling fraction effects, for both two- and three-dimensional porous media.