FLUID FLOW SIMULATION IN RANDOM POROUS MEDIA AT PORE LEVEL USING THE LATTICE BOLTZMANN METHOD

Fluid flow in two dimensional random porous media is simulated at pore level usingthe Lattice Boltzmann Method. Random media are constructed by placing identicalrectangles with a random distribution and free overlapping. Different domainresolutions are examined and it is shown that the effect of the domain resolution isnegligible in the range examined. Simulations clearly indicate, for the same porosity,the permeability of the random porous media is lower than the permeability of theregularly ordered medium; the permeability, independently of the porous mediaorganization, varies exponentially with the porosity. Average tortuosity of the flow iscalculated and it is proposed its correlation with the porosity. The effect of the aspectratio of the randomly placed obstacles on the predicted tortuosity and permeability isstudied, and it is found that an increase of the obstacles’ aspect ratio (height to widthratio) yields an increase of the tortuosity and consequent decrease of the permeability.The predicted values of the permeability and tortuosity are in close agreement with thedata available in the literature.