Physicomathematical modeling of the processes of capillary impregnation of porous materials

The process of capillary impregnation of porous materials is studied numerically. A physicomathematical model of liquid diffusion in a porous sample is proposed. The model involves an analytical presentation of the diffusion coefficient, which describes available experimental data. A method of solving one-dimensional unsteady problems of impregnation is developed and tested on a self-similar solution of the corresponding boundary-value problem of impregnation. If the impregnation process is sufficiently long, the motion of the liquid in the sample is described by a stable self-similar solution. A classification of moisture diffusion on the basis of the initial humidity on the sample boundary is proposed. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 42–51, January–February, 2009.