Abstract
In this paper, laminar flow through and over models of porous media is studied to characterize the flow at the onset of inertia. Horizontal, vertical or mesh arrays of circular rods are used to model the porous medium. The rods are arranged to cover solid volume fraction ranging from 0.03 to 0.49, and to fill approximately three-quarters of the depth of the test section. Each of the porous media models is tested in a refractive-index matched viscous fluid flow driven by pressure. The Reynolds number is also varied over an order of magnitude to cover the regime at which the porous medium flow just transitions from a Darcy to an inertia laminar flow regime. Velocity measurements are then obtained by a planar particle image velocimetry technique. The experimental data confirms that the averaged transition flow is indeed governed by the Brinkman equation if modeled with a new parametrization of the apparent viscosity, and modified with an equivalent permeability that accounts for the effects of inertia. Additionally, the results show that at such inertial flows, the interfacial region is the porous medium zone affected most by changes in Reynolds numbers. The data presented in this work provide tools for analytical and numerical validations, and the prediction of interfacial flow pertaining to isotropic porous media.
Published Version
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