scholarly journals Turbulent Flow through and over a Compact Three-Dimensional Model Porous Medium: An Experimental Study

Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
James Kofi Arthur

There are several natural and industrial applications where turbulent flows over compact porous media are relevant. However, the study of such flows is rare. In this paper, an experimental investigation of turbulent flow through and over a compact model porous medium is presented to fill this gap in the literature. The objectives of this work were to measure the development of the flow over the porous boundary, the penetration of the turbulent flow into the porous domain, the attendant three-dimensional effects, and Reynolds number effects. These objectives were achieved by conducting particle image velocimetry measurements in a test section with turbulent flow through and over a compact model porous medium of porosity 85%, and filling fraction 21%. The bulk Reynolds numbers were 14,338 and 24,510. The results showed a large-scale anisotropic turbulent flow region over and within the porous medium. The overlying turbulent flow had a boundary layer that thickened along the stream by about 90% and infiltrated into the porous medium to a depth of about 7% of the porous medium rod diameter. The results presented here provide useful physical insight suited for the design and analyses of turbulent flows over compact porous media arrangements.

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiko Inoue ◽  
Akira Nakayama

Three-dimensional numerical experiments have been conducted to investigate the viscous and porous inertia effects on the pressure drop in a non-Newtonian fluid flow through a porous medium. A collection of cubes placed in a region of infinite extent has been proposed as a three-dimensional model of microscopic porous structure. A full set of three-dimensional momentum equations is treated along with the continuity equation at a pore scale, so as to simulate a flow through an infinite number of obstacles arranged in a regular pattern. The microscopic numerical results, thus obtained, are processed to extract the macroscopic relationship between the pressure gradient-mass flow rate. The modified permeability determined by reading the intercept value in the plot showing the dimensionless pressure gradient versus Reynolds number closely follows Christopher and Middleman’s formula based on a hydraulic radius concept. Upon comparing the results based on the two- and three-dimensional models, it has been found that only the three-dimensional model can capture the porous inertia effects on the pressure drop, correctly. The resulting expression for the porous inertia possesses the same functional form as Ergun’s, but its level is found to be only one third of Ergun’s.


Author(s):  
Sintia Bejatovic ◽  
Martin Agelinchaab ◽  
Mark F. Tachie

The paper reports on an experimental investigation of turbulent flow through model two-dimensional porous media. The porous media was bounded on one side by a solid plane wall and on the other side by a zone of clear fluid. The model porous media comprised of square arrays of circular acrylic rods that were inserted into precision holes drilled onto pairs of removable plates. The removable plates were then inserted into groves made in the side walls of the test channel. The rods fill about 59% of the channel height. Different combinations of rod diameter and center-to-center spacing were used to produce solid volume fractions that ranged from 0.11 to 0.44. The Reynolds number based on the bulk velocity of the approach flow and channel height was 16800. A high resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to conduct detailed velocity measurements within the porous media and the adjacent clear fluid. The results demonstrate that permeability of the porous medium is more useful in correlating the flow characteristics than the porosity or solid volume fraction. Irrespective of rod diameter or spacing, a decrease in permeability of the porous medium produced a lower value of the dimensionless slip velocity. A decrease in permeability also produced higher resistance to the fluid flow through the porous medium. As a result, a larger fraction of the approach flow is channeled through the clear zone adjacent to a porous medium with lower permeability than those with relatively higher permeability. It was also observed that spatially averaged profiles of the mean velocities and turbulent quantities depend strongly on permeability.


2008 ◽  
Vol 615 ◽  
pp. 371-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. DONG

We report three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of the turbulent flow between counter-rotating concentric cylinders with a radius ratio 0.5. The inner- and outer-cylinder Reynolds numbers have the same magnitude, which ranges from 500 to 4000 in the simulations. We show that with the increase of Reynolds number, the prevailing structures in the flow are azimuthal vortices with scales much smaller than the cylinder gap. At high Reynolds numbers, while the instantaneous small-scale vortices permeate the entire domain, the large-scale Taylor vortex motions manifested by the time-averaged field do not penetrate a layer of fluid near the outer cylinder. Comparisons between the standard Taylor–Couette system (rotating inner cylinder, fixed outer cylinder) and the counter-rotating system demonstrate the profound effects of the Coriolis force on the mean flow and other statistical quantities. The dynamical and statistical features of the flow have been investigated in detail.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Tsai ◽  
Kuang-Ting Wu

<p>It is demonstrated that turbulent boundary layers are populated by a hierarchy of recurrent structures, normally referred to as the coherent structures. Thus, it is desirable to gain a better understanding of the spatial-temporal characteristics of coherent structures and their impact on fluid particles. Furthermore, the ejection and sweep events play an important role in turbulent statistics. Therefore, this study focuses on the characterizations of flow particles under the influence of the above-mentioned two structures.</p><div><span>With regard to the geometry of turbulent structures, </span><span>Meinhart & Adrian (1995) </span>first highlighted the existence of large and irregularly shaped regions of uniform streamwise momentum zone (hereafter referred to as a uniform momentum zone, or UMZs), regions of relatively similar streamwise velocity with coherence in the streamwise and wall-normal directions.  <span>Subsequently, </span><span>de Silva et al. (2017) </span><span>provided a detection criterion that had previously been utilized to locate the uniform momentum zones (UMZ) and demonstrated the application of this criterion to estimate the spatial locations of the edges that demarcates UMZs.</span></div><div> </div><div>In this study, detection of the existence of UMZs is a pre-process of identifying the coherent structures. After the edges of UMZs are determined, the identification procedure of ejection and sweep events from turbulent flow DNS data should be defined. As such, an integrated criterion of distinguishing ejection and sweep events is proposed. Based on the integrated criterion, the statistical characterizations of coherent structures from available turbulent flow data such as event durations, event maximum heights, and wall-normal and streamwise lengths can be presented.</div>


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenglun Alan Wei ◽  
Zhongquan Charlie Zheng ◽  
Xiaofan Yang

A parallel implementation of an immersed-boundary (IB) method is presented for low Reynolds number flow simulations in a representative elementary volume (REV) of porous media that are composed of a periodic array of regularly arranged structures. The material of the structure in the REV can be solid (impermeable) or microporous (permeable). Flows both outside and inside the microporous media are computed simultaneously by using an IB method to solve a combination of the Navier–Stokes equation (outside the microporous medium) and the Zwikker–Kosten equation (inside the microporous medium). The numerical simulation is firstly validated using flow through the REVs of impermeable structures, including square rods, circular rods, cubes, and spheres. The resultant pressure gradient over the REVs is compared with analytical solutions of the Ergun equation or Darcy–Forchheimer law. The good agreements demonstrate the validity of the numerical method to simulate the macroscopic flow behavior in porous media. In addition, with the assistance of a scientific parallel computational library, PETSc, good parallel performances are achieved. Finally, the IB method is extended to simulate species transport by coupling with the REV flow simulation. The species sorption behaviors in an REV with impermeable/solid and permeable/microporous materials are then studied.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario F. Letelier ◽  
César E. Rosas

Abstract A theoretical study of the fully developed fluid flow through a confined porous medium is presented. The fluid is described by the Bingham plastic model for small values of the yield number. The analysis allows for many admissible shapes of the wall contour. The velocity field is computed for several combination of relevant parameters, i.e., the yield number, Darcy resistance coefficient and the boundary perturbation parameter. The wall effect is especially highlighted and the characteristics of the central plug region as well. Plots of isovel curves and velocity profiles are included for a variety of flow and geometry parameters.


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