Abstract
Behaviour of flow resistance with velocity is still undefined for post-laminar flow through coarse granular media. This can cause considerable errors during flow measurements in situations like rock fill dams, water filters, pumping wells, oil and gas exploration, and so on. Keeping the non-deviating nature of Wilkins coefficients with the hydraulic radius of media in mind, the present study further explores their behaviour to independently varying media size and porosity, subjected to parallel post-laminar flow through granular media. Furthermore, an attempt is made to simulate the post-laminar flow conditions with the help of a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Model in ANSYS FLUENT, since conducting large-scale experiments are often costly and time-consuming. The model output and the experimental results are found to be in good agreement. Percentage deviations between the experimental and numerical results are found to be in the considerable range. Furthermore, the simulation results are statistically validated with the experimental results using the standard ‘Z-test’. The output from the model advocates the importance and applicability of CFD modelling in understanding post-laminar flow through granular media.
Highlights
The porous media flow is commonly characterized by the linear relation between the superficial velocity and hydraulic gradient, proposed by Henry Darcy as: V = ki where V is the superficial velocity (m/s); i is the hydraulic gradient, and k is the coefficient of permeability (m/s)
It is observed that Equation (1) predicts the flow satisfactorily only when the Reynolds number is less than 10 [1,2]
The characterization and modeling of flow through porous media is pertinent since the issue aptly addresses the abovementioned challenges
Summary
The porous media flow is commonly characterized by the linear relation between the superficial velocity and hydraulic gradient, proposed by Henry Darcy as: V = ki (1). Where V is the superficial velocity (m/s); i is the hydraulic gradient (head loss per unit length in the direction of flow), and k is the coefficient of permeability (m/s). It is observed that Equation (1) predicts the flow satisfactorily only when the Reynolds number is less than 10 [1,2]. At higher Reynolds numbers, the velocity and hydraulic gradient do not exhibit a linear relationship. The characterization and modeling of flow through porous media is pertinent since the issue aptly addresses the abovementioned challenges. The studies and Energies 2018, 11, 320; doi:10.3390/en11020320 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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