A joint lattice Boltzmann and molecular dynamics investigation for thermohydraulical simulation of nano flows through porous media

Abstract

The performance of standard Lattice Boltzmann, LB, is confined to the micro scale flows with a Knudsen number, Kn, less than 0.1. In the previous works we proposed a modified LB which is able to extend the ability of LBM to simulate wide range of Knudsen flow regimes. To study the ability of this model for porous media, in the present work we investigate nanoscale gaseous flows through porous media confined between parallel plates by means of LB, and molecular dynamics, MD, simulations. The comparison between modified LB and MD shows a very good agreement at sufficiently low solid fractions. In addition, flow characteristics through various porous structures are studied via the MD simulation and the effect of various parameters such as driving force, porosity and Knudsen number on the velocity and temperature distributions is investigated. Our results demonstrate the good ability of MDS for investigating different flow phenomena such as permittivity and Darcian flow in porous media.