The Open Transport Phenomena Journal

2012, 4 : 1-8
Published online 2012 January 23. DOI: 10.2174/1877729501204010001
Publisher ID: TOTPJ-4-1

A Three-Dimensional Numerical Model for Determining the Pressure Drops in Porous Media Consisting of Obstacles of Different Sizes

Y. Fumoto , R. Liu , Y. Sano and X. Huang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, 432-8561, Japan.

ABSTRACT

A three-dimensional numerical model is proposed to determine the pressure drops in porous media consisting of obstacles of different sizes. A series of full three-dimensional numerical calculations were performed to reveal complex three-dimensional velocity and pressure fields within three-dimensional porous structures consisting of spheres of different sizes. These numerical results are processed to obtain the macroscopic pressure gradients. An effective diameter concept has been proposed to correlate the resulting macroscopic pressure gradients with the Ergun equation. The most appropriate definition of the effective diameter has been found such that it, when substituted in the Ergun formula, gives the most reasonable estimate on the pressure drop for the given porosity and diameter distribution.

Keywords:

Permeability, ergun equation, numerical simulation, pressure drop.