Computation of Fluid Flow Through Porous Media

Fluid flow through a porous medium has an important role in many engineering systems and environmental processes. This paper proposes a novel discretization technique that numerically solves coupled heat and mass transfer in porous media with only moderate computational effort. The porous medium is simulated by randomly assigning discretized meshes in the computational domain to a solid matrix. Then the 3D Navier-Stokes equations are solved for the fluid flow and heat transfer for the matrix. A systematic parametric study is conducted easily by varying the porosity. The technique is applied to the numerical study of the hydraulic characteristics in Darcy flow (linear), Forchheimer flow (nonlinear) and regimes beyond Forchheimer. Those characteristics have previously been classified commonly via experimental studies. The nondimensional Darcy number (permeability) versus a broad range of Reynolds' number and porosity are examined to understand features of the nonlinear pressure drop versus fluid speed relation observed in various experiments, for example as reported by Lage, Antohe and Nield, Journal of Fluid Engineering, Sept. 1997.