A computational evaluation of flow through porous media

[摘要] The understanding and quantitative description of fluid flowthrough porousmedia,is a science which has been going on for many years and investigated in avariety of disciplines. Studies in this field have primarily been based on models,which can either be described as empirical or theoretical. Part of the currentstudy is to understand fluid flow in porous media through studying three recenttheoretical pore-scale models based on the concept of a Representative Unit Cell(RUC), to represent a porous medium. Amongst other assumptions, these modelsassumed plane Poiseuille flow throughout each pore section of a rectangularRUC. The main objective of this study is to numerically verify this assumptionusing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, FLUENT version 6.2.16.Attention is also paid to comparison between these models with the experimentaldata, obtained during the model tests of airflow through a timber stack end,undertaken in a wind tunnel. The laminar and intermediate airflow through atimber stack end is simulated using the commercial software FLUENT, and theresults are validated against the theoretical pore-scale models and experimentaldata. Two turbulence models which are, the Standard k − e and Reynolds-Stressmodels are used in these computations, the aimbeing to determine howwell theyare able to reproduce the experimental data. The numerical results are in goodagreement with one of the theoretical models presented and the experimentaldata.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University