Pore-scale simulation of fluid flow passing over a porously covered square cylinder located at the middle of a channel, using a hybrid MRT-LBM–FVM approach

Abstract

A comprehensive study was performed to analyze the unsteady laminar flow characteristics around a porously covered, a fully porous, and a solid squared section cylinder located in the middle of a plane channel. In order to simulate fluid flow inside porous media and porous–fluid interface accurately (minimizing modeling error), the porous region was analyzed in pore scale, using LBM. Additionally, to minimize the LBM-related compressibility error through the porous region, a multi-block multiple relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method (MRT-LBM) was used. Also, to decrease CPU time, a Navier–Stokes flow solver, based on finite volume method and SIMPLE algorithm, was coupled with MRT-LBM to simulate flow around the porous obstacle. It should be noted that the flow inside the porous layer is in continuum regime, and hence, the no-slip boundary condition was used to treat the solid walls inside the porous media. In our simulations, we considered variations of porosity and Reynolds number ranging from 0.75 to 0.94 and from 60 to 240, respectively. The effects of porosity and Reynolds number on vortex pattern, mean drag coefficient, amplitude of lift coefficient, and Strouhal number were investigated. Comparison of our results with the ones obtained using Open FOAM, as well as published by others, shows the suitable accuracy of our computations. It is seen that at low Reynolds numbers or at low porosities, where the mean flow does not have large enough momentum to penetrate porous media, the resulting flow field and aerodynamic coefficients are relatively close for three different configurations used. However, as the flow Reynolds number or permeability increases, the mean flow penetrates easier into the porous media and thus provides different shedding characteristics and aerodynamic coefficients for different obstacle shapes.