Analysis of Fluid Flow in Porous Media Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method: Inertial Flow Regime

In this work, we use the lattice Boltzmann method to study inertial flow in three-dimensional random fibrous porous materials. In order to validate the methodology, inertial flow in two-dimensional hexagonal arrangements of circular cylinders is simulated, and the results are compared against those previously reported in the literature. The three-dimensional fibrous porous materials are then constructed by randomly placing straight cylindrical fibers inside the computational domain. Inertial effects are studied systematically for a wide range of pore Reynolds numbers in materials with porosities between 0.60 and 0.95. A previously proposed semi-empirical relation is modified to represent the inertial effects in three-dimensional fibrous materials. Three distinct regimes of constant, quadratic, and linear relations between the inverse of the permeability and pore Reynolds number are observed for both two- and three-dimensional simulations. The critical Reynolds number, beyond which the inertial effects are strong and this relation is linear, is shown to be smaller in three-dimensional simulations, when compared to the critical Reynolds number in two-dimensional simulations.