A unified approach to simulation and upscaling of single‐phase flow through vuggy carbonates

Numerical modeling of flow through vuggy porous media, mainly vuggy carbonates, is a challenging endeavor. Firstly, because the presence of vugs can significantly alter the effective porosity and permeability of the medium. Secondly, because of the co‐existence of porous and free flow regions within the medium and the uncertainties in defining the exact boundary between them. Traditionally, such heterogeneous systems are modeled by the coupled Darcy–Stokes equations. However, numerical modeling of flow through vuggy porous media using coupled Darcy–Stokes equations poses several numerical challenges particularly with respect to specification of correct interface condition between the porous and free‐flow regions. Hence, an alternative method, a more unified approach for modeling flows through vuggy porous media, the Stokes–Brinkman model, is proposed here. It is a single equation model with variable coefficients, which can be used for both porous and free‐flow regions. This also makes the requirement for interface condition redundant. Thus, there is an obvious benefit of using the Stokes–Brinkman equation, which can be reduced to Stokes or Darcy equation by the appropriate choice of parameters. At the same time, the Stokes–Brinkman equation provides a smooth transition between porous and free‐flow region, thereby taking care of the associated uncertainties. A numerical treatment for upscaling Stokes–Brinkman model is presented as an approach to use Stokes–Brinkman model for multi‐phase flow. Numerical upscaling methodology is validated by analyzing the error norm for numerical pressure convergence. Stokes–Brinkman single equation model is tested on a series of realistic data sets, and the results are compared with traditional coupled Darcy–Stokes model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Inertial Terms on Fluid–Porous Medium Flow Coupling

The study considers an effect of the nonlinear inertial terms in the Brinkman filtration equation on the characteristics of coupled flows in a pure fluid and porous medium in the frameworks of two independent problems. The first problem is the forced boundary-layer flow overlying the Darcy–Brinkman porous medium. The Prandtl theory is used, and the self-similar equations are built to describe it. It is shown that the inertial terms have a valuable effect on the boundary-layer structure because of the large velocity gradient in the transition zone. The boundary-layer thickness in a porous medium rapidly grows at large Reynolds numbers. The velocity magnitude and gradient at the interface also change. The second independent problem is an analysis of the inertial terms effect on the flow stability. The neutral curves of the full and linearized flow models are built using the shooting method. They have different short-wave asymptotic, but there are no significant changes in the critical Reynolds numbers and corresponding wave numbers.     

Three-Dimensional Darcy–Brinkman Flow in Sinusoidal Bumpy Tubes

The verified Darcy–Brinkman model and boundary perturbation method are used to study the Brinkman flow in a tube with a bumpy surface, assuming the amplitude of the bumps is small compared to the mean tube radius. This study is important to understand the abnormal flow conditions caused by the boundary irregularities in diseased vessels. The mean rate flow is found, up to second-order correction, as a function of circumferential and longitudinal wave numbers and the permeability parameter of the porous medium. Numerical results displaying the velocity components and bumpiness functions are obtained for various values of the physical parameters of the problem. The results are tabulated and represented graphically for various physical parameters. It is found that, for every permeability parameter and for given bump area, there exists a circumferential wave number, for which the flow resistance is minimized. The limiting cases of Stokes and Darcy’s flows of the bumpiness function are discussed and compared with the available results in the literature.     

On the flow of fluids through inhomogeneous porous media due to high pressure gradients

Most porous solids are inhomogeneous and anisotropic, and the flows of fluids taking place through such porous solids may show features very different from that of flow through a porous medium with constant porosity and permeability. In this short paper we allow for the possibility that the medium is inhomogeneous and that the viscosity and drag are dependent on the pressure (there is considerable experimental evidence to support the fact that the viscosity of a fluid depends on the pressure). We then investigate the flow through a rectangular slab for two different permeability distributions, considering both the generalized Darcy and Brinkman models. We observe that the solutions using the Darcy and Brinkman models could be drastically different or practically identical, depending on the inhomogeneity, that is, the permeability and hence the Darcy number.     

Inertial and Darcy’s Terms Ratio in Boundary Layer at Fluid–Porous Medium Interface

The study considers the forced boundary-layer flow overlying the Darcy–Brinkman porous medium and gives a quantitative analysis of the nonlinear inertial terms in the Brinkman filtration equation. The inertial terms are shown to be larger than the Darcy’s drag near the porous medium interface. The applicability range of boundary-layer approach is determined. It is suitable in high-permeable media with moderate velocities of an external flow. If it is slow enough, the inertial terms can be omitted in spite of interface effect. On the other hand, fast external flow produces the filtration with large pore-scale Reynolds number; therefore, the Forchheimer’s drag should be taken into account. It is shown the Brinkman term as well as inertial terms have a significant role in boundary-layer formation within the porous medium.     

Flow instability in a curved porous channel formed by two concentric cylindrical surfaces

Stability of laminar flow in a curved channel formed by two concentric cylindrical surfaces is investigated. The channel is occupied by a fluid saturated porous medium; the flow in the channel is driven by a constant azimuthal pressure gradient. The momentum equation takes into account two drag terms: the Darcy term that describes friction between the fluid and the porous matrix, and the Brinkman term, which allows imposing the no-slip boundary condition at the channel walls. An analytical solution for the basic flow velocity is obtained. Numerical analysis is carried out using the collocation method to investigate the onset of instability leading to the development of a secondary motion in the form of toroidal vortices. The dependence of the critical Dean number on porosity and the channel width is analyzed.     

Generalized Plain Couette Flow and Heat Transfer in a Composite Channel

An analytical study of fluid flow and heat transfer in a composite channel is presented. The channel walls are maintained at different constant temperatures in such a way that the temperatures do not allow for free convection. The upper plate is considered to be moving and the lower plate is fixed. The flow is modeled using Darcy–Lapwood–Brinkman equation. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are included in the energy equation. By applying suitable matching and boundary conditions, an exact solution has been obtained for the velocity and temperature distributions in the two regions of the composite channel. The effects of various parameters such as the porous medium parameter, viscosity ratio, height ratio, conductivity ratio, Eckert number, and Prandtl number on the velocity and temperature fields are presented graphically and discussed.     

Effects of Viscous Dissipation and Flow Work on Forced Convection in a Channel Filled by a Saturated Porous Medium

Fully developed forced convection in a parallel plate channel filled by a saturated porous medium, with walls held either at uniform temperature or at uniform heat flux, with the effects of viscous dissipation and flow work included, is treated analytically. The Brinkman model is employed. The analysis leads to expressions for the Nusselt number, as a function of the Darcy number and Brinkman number.     

Darcy–Brinkman Flow Through a Corrugated Channel

A perturbation analysis is carried out to the second order to give effective equations for Darcy–Brinkman flow through a porous channel with slightly corrugated walls. The flow is either parallel or normal to the corrugations, and the corrugations of the two walls are either in phase or half-period out of phase. The present study is based on the assumptions that the corrugations are periodic sinusoidal waves of small amplitude, and the channel is filled with a sparse porous medium so that the flow can be described by the Darcy–Brinkman model, which approaches the Darcian or Stokes flow limits for small or large permeability of the medium. The Reynolds number is also assumed to be so low that the nonlinear inertia can be ignored. The effects of the corrugations on the flow are examined, quantitatively and qualitatively, as functions of the flow direction, the phase difference, and the wavelength of the corrugations, as well as the permeability of the channel. It is found that the corrugations will have greater effects when it is nearer the Stokes’ flow limit than the Darcian flow limit, and when the wavelength is shorter. For the same wavelength and phase difference, cross flow is more affected than longitudinal flow by the corrugations. Opposite effects can result from 180° out-of-phase corrugations, depending on the flow direction, the wavelength, as well as the permeability.     

Fully Developed Mixed Convection Flow in a Vertical Channel Containing Porous and Fluid Layer with Isothermal or Isoflux Boundaries

An analysis of fully developed combined free and forced convective flow in a fluid saturated porous medium channel bounded by two vertical parallel plates is presented. The flow is modeled using Brinkman equation model. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are also included in the energy equation. Three types of thermal boundary conditions such as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal, and isothermal–isoflux for the left–right walls of the channel are considered. Analytical solutions for the governing ordinary differential equations are obtained by perturbation series method. In addition, closed form expressions for the Nusselt number at both the left and right channel walls are derived. Results have been presented for a wide range of governing parameters such as porous parameter, ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number, viscosity ratio, width ratio, and conductivity ratio on velocity, and temperature fields. It is found that the presence of porous matrix in one of the region reduces the velocity and temperature.     

A numerical method for forced convection in porous and homogeneous fluid domains coupled at interface by stress jump

A numerical method was developed for flows involving an interface between a homogeneous fluid and a porous medium. It is based on the finite volume method with body‐fitted and multi‐block grids. The Brinkman–Forcheimmer extended model was used to govern the flow in the porous medium region. At its interface, the flow boundary condition imposed is a shear stress jump, which includes the inertial effect, together with a continuity of normal stress. The thermal boundary condition is continuity of temperature and heat flux. The forced convection through a porous insert over a backward‐facing step is investigated. The results are presented with flow configurations for different Darcy numbers, 10^?2 to 10^?5, porosity from 0.2 to 0.8, Reynolds number from 10 to 800, and the ratio of insert length to channel height from 0.1 to 0.3. The heat transfer is improved by using porous insert. To enhance the heat transfer with minimal frictional losses, it is preferable to have a medium length of insert with medium Darcy number, and larger Reynolds number. The interfacial stress jump coefficients β and β₁ were varied from ?1 to 1, and within this range the average and local lower‐wall Nusselt numbers are not sensitive to the parameters. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lattice Boltzmann simulations of turbulent shear flow between parallel porous walls

The effects of two parallel porous walls are investigated, consisting of the Darcy number and the porosity of a porous medium, on the behavior of turbulent shear flows as well as skin-friction drag. The turbulent channel flow with a porous surface is directly simulated by the lattice Boltzmann method （LBM）. The Darcy-Brinkman- Forcheimer （DBF） acting force term is added in the lattice Boltzmann equation to simu- late the turbulent flow bounded by porous walls. It is found that there are two opposite trends （enhancement or reduction） for the porous medium to modify the intensities of the velocity fluctuations and the Reynolds stresses in the near wall region. The parametric study shows that flow modification depends on the Darcy number and the porosity of the porous medium. The results show that, with respect to the conventional impermeable wall, the degree of turbulence modification does not depend on any simple set of param- eters obviously. Moreover, the drag in porous wall-bounded turbulent flow decreases if the Darcy number is smaller than the order of O（10-4） and the porosity of porous walls is up to 0.4.     

Analysis of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Vertical Rectangular Duct Using a Non-Darcy Model

Numerical investigation of steady natural convection flow through a fluid-saturated porous medium in a vertical rectangular duct is investigated. The Darcy-Forchheimer-Brinkman model is used to represent the fluid transport within the porous medium. One of the vertical walls of the duct is cooled to a constant temperature, while the other wall is heated to constant but different temperature. The other two sides of the duct are insulated. The finite difference method of second-order accuracy is used to solve the non-dimensional governing equations. The results are presented graphically to show the effects of the Darcy number, inertial parameter, Grashof number, Brinkman number, aspect ratio, and viscosity ratio. It is found that an increase in the Darcy number and inertial parameter reduces the flow intensity whereas an increase in the Grashof number, Brinkman number, aspect ratio, and viscosity ratio increases the flow intensity.     

Finite Element Modelling of Flow Through a Porous Medium Between Two Parallel Plates Using The Brinkman Equation

Despite the widespread use of the Darcy equation to model porous flow, it is well known that this equation is inconsistent with commonly prescribed no slip conditions at flow domain walls or interfaces between different sections. Therefore, in cases where the wall effects on the flow regime are expected to be significant, the Darcy equation which is only consistent with perfect slip at solid boundaries, cannot predict velocity and pressure profiles properly and alternative models such as the Brinkman equation need to be considered. This paper is devoted to the study of the flow of a Newtonian fluid in a porous medium between two impermeable parallel walls at different Darcy parameters (Da). The flow regime is considered to be isothermal and steady. Three different flow regimes can be considered using the Brinkman equation: free flow (Da > 1), porous flow (high permeability, 1 > Da > 10⁻⁶) and porous flow (low permeability Da < 10⁻⁶). In the present work the described bench mark problem is used to study the effects of solid walls for a range of low to high Darcy parameters. Both no-slip and slip conditions are considered and the results of these two cases are compared. The range of the applicability of the Brinkman equation and simulated results for different cases are shown.     

Mixed Convection in a Vertical Porous Channel

A numerical study of mixed convection in a vertical channel filled with a porous medium including the effect of inertial forces is studied by taking into account the effect of viscous and Darcy dissipations. The flow is modeled using the Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy equations. The two boundaries are considered as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal and isothermal–isoflux for the left and right walls of the channel and kept either at equal or at different temperatures. The governing equations are solved numerically by finite difference method with Southwell–Over–Relaxation technique for extended Darcy model and analytically using perturbation series method for Darcian model. The velocity and temperature fields are obtained for various porous parameter, inertia effect, product of Brinkman number and Grashof number and the ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number for equal and different wall temperatures. Nusselt number at the walls is also determined for three types of thermal boundary conditions. The viscous dissipation enhances the flow reversal in the case of downward flow while it counters the flow in the case of upward flow. The Darcy and inertial drag terms suppress the flow. It is found that analytical and numerical solutions agree very well for the Darcian model. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Numerical simulation of the flow around a porous covering square cylinder in a channel via lattice Boltzmann method

In this paper, a detailed investigation on the flow past a porous covering cylinder is presented through the lattice Boltzmann method. The Brinkman‐Forchheimer‐extended Darcy model is adopted for the entire flow field with the solid, fluid, and porous medium. The effects of several parameters, such as porous layer thickness, Darcy number, porosity, and Reynolds number on flow field are discussed. Compared with the case of a solid cylinder, the present work shows that the porous layer may play an important role on the flow, the lift and drag force exerted on the cylinder. The numerical results indicate that the maximal drag coefficient C_d and maximal amplitude of lift coefficient C_l exist at certain Darcy number which is in the range of 10^?6–10^?2. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Brownian Motion and Thermophoresis on the Mixed Convection of Nanofluid in a Porous Channel Including Flow Reversal

This article is devoted to combined convection heat transfer of nanofluids through a vertical channel filled with a homogeneous and isotropic porous medium. The flow is assumed to be fully developed and the “Brinkman extended Darcy” model is used for the flow in the porous media and “clear compatible” viscous dissipation model is considered. Also the model utilized for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The governing momentum, energy, and nanopartices volume fraction equations are solved both analytically and numerically. The effects of the influential dimensionless parameters such as Brownian and thermophoresis parameters, mixed convection parameter (Gr/Re), Brinkman, Darcy and Lewis numbers on dimensionless velocity and temperature distributions and pressure drop are studied. Also, the results of the Nusselt number for the both left and right walls are presented and discussed.     

Convection in a porous medium with velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions

The onset of convection in a rarefield gas saturating a horizontal layer of a porous medium has been investigated using both Darcy and Brinkman models. It is assumed that due to rarefaction both velocity slip and temperature jump exist at the boundaries. The results show that (i) when the degree of rarefaction increases the critical Rayleigh number as well as the critical wave number for the onset of convection increases, (ii) stabilizing effect of temperature jump is more than that of velocity slip, (iii) Darcy model is seen to be the most stable one when compared to Brinkman model or the pure gaseous layer (i.e. in the absence of porous medium).     

Rigorous derivation of the effective model describing a non-isothermal fluid flow in a vertical pipe filled with porous medium

This paper reports an analytical investigation of non-isothermal fluid flow in a thin (or long) vertical pipe filled with porous medium via asymptotic analysis. We assume that the fluid inside the pipe is cooled (or heated) by the surrounding medium and that the flow is governed by the prescribed pressure drop between pipe’s ends. Starting from the dimensionless Darcy–Brinkman–Boussinesq system, we formally derive a macroscopic model describing the effective flow at small Brinkman–Darcy number. The asymptotic approximation is given by the explicit formulae for the velocity, pressure and temperature clearly acknowledging the effects of the cooling (heating) and porous structure. The theoretical error analysis is carried out to indicate the order of accuracy and to provide a rigorous justification of the effective model.