Particle transport and deposition in porous structures: effects of particle properties, porosity and Reynolds number

Since experiments are expensive and often difficult to perform reliable computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models save time and money when applied to transport and deposition of aerosol particles. In this work, we simulate particle transport and deposition in porous structures with different porosity. The resulting air-flow patterns as well as particle transport and deposition are analyzed for different inlet flows and particle with different properties (i.e., density and diameter). We compute particle trajectories and the deposition for different conditions. In addition, the loss of permeability due to deposition is evaluated

Permeability-porosity relationship assessment by 2-D numerical simulations

An accurate evaluation of the permeability of a porous structure is critical for predicting fluid flow rates. In this study, we report the results of two-dimensional simulations of creeping flow through porous structures with porosities between 0.2 and 0.99. Our numerical results demonstrate that in this range, permeability is an exponential function of the porosity. This result is found to be in good agreement with experimental data. In addition, we compare our simulation results with some permeability-porosity relationship available in literature. We found that Carman–Kozeny’s correlation agrees very well with our results for porosities up to 0.87 and Koponen et al.’s relationship holds well for porosities higher than 0.95. Based on the results obtained in this study, a new permeability-porosity relationship is presented, for the model system used