Effect of anisotropic permeability on fluid flow through composite porous channel

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical model for a fully developed flow through a composite porous channel. The channel consists of a fluid layer sandwiched between two porous layers. A generalized Brinkman-extended Darcy model for the porous layers and Navier–Stokes equations for the fluid layer are used to investigate the flow in detail. The continuity of stress and velocity are used at the interface and no slip at the impermeable walls. We assume that the porous layers are anisotropic. Accordingly, \(\varphi \) is taken as the angle between the horizontal direction and the principal axes with permeability \(K_{2}\) or \(K_{4}\) for the lower or upper porous layers considering the anisotropic nature of the porous medium. It is shown that the anisotropic permeability and orientation angle \(\varphi \) have a strong effect on the fluid flow and skin friction. We present some important findings based on the response to variations in the anisotropy.