Electromagnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) flow through porous media—Multiscale approach

Abstract

Electromagnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) flow in porous media is recently gaining substantial attention from researchers. EMHD involves analyzing the combined effects of electric and magnetic fields on the behavior of fluid flow through a medium. The effective permeability of porous materials is of great interest for many environmental and industrial applications. The present study focuses on the modeling of single-phase fluid flow in porous media under combined effects of electric and magnetic fields at the pore scale by employing a two-scale computational homogenization technique. The primary objective of this study is to establish a definition of “electromagnetopermeability” that accurately characterizes the effective permeability of a porous medium under the EMHD effects. Additionally, the study investigates the impact of wall zeta potential, Debye length, and the intensity of external magnetic and electric fields, represented by the Hartmann number and the non-dimensional parameter S, respectively, on the electromagnetopermeability tensor within an idealized three-dimensional periodic porous domain. It is observed that the EM-permeability is significantly affected by the existence of the flow-assisting and flow-opposing components of the Lorentz force term in the momentum equation. The implications of this research extend to several industries, including geology, medicine, chemistry, and energy conversion.