Experimental Investigation of the Permeability and Inertial Effect on Fluid Flow through Homogeneous Porous Media

Abstract

The value of the permeability in fluid flow through porous media is important for process investigation. In low Reynolds number, the classic Darcy’s law is suitable for simulation of fluid flow. In this paper, an experimental study for evaluation of preformed fiber permeability has been done. Also, the deviations from the classical Darcy law by experimental and numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations has been studied, and the coefficient of inertial term evaluated. The fluid flow in a geometry which is similar to the experimental system has been modeled as the Stokes flow on multi particles. Kozeny-Carmen relation for characteristic diameter of particles has been used as the characteristic dimension in numerical analysis. Numerical solution has been done based on the boundary elements method and the results are used for the K calculations. With experimental investigations for the fluid flows with higher Reynold’s number, the coefficients for Forchheimer term could be obtained.

Keywords

• porous media
• permeability
• e-glass fiber
• darcy’s law
• fluid flow