Free Flow at the Interface of Porous Surfaces: A Generalization of the Taylor Brush Configuration

A solution to the problem of shallow laminar water flow above a porous surface is essential when modeling phenomena such as erosion, resuspension, and mass transfer between the porous media and the flow above it. Previous studies proposed theoretical, experimental, and numerical insight with no single general solution to the problem. Many studies have used the Brinkman equation, while others showed that it does not represent the actual interface flow conditions. In this paper we show that the interface macroscopic velocity can be accurately modeled by introducing a modification to the Brinkman equation. A moving average approach was proved to be successful when choosing the correct representative elementary volume and comparing the macroscopic solution with the average microscopic flow. As the size of the representative elementary volume was found to be equal to the product of the square root of the permeability and an exponential function of the porosity, a general solution is now available for any brush configuration. Given the properties of the porous media (porosity and permeability), the flow height and its driving force, a complete macroscopic solution of the interface flow is obtained.