Numerical Analysis of Same Scales Droplet-Particle Interaction Inside a Porous Medium, Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

Multiphase flows, combined with porous media, with application in both nature and industry are greatly important. The main objective of this research is to analyze drop interaction with porous media. Multiphase flow through a porous medium, including circular obstacle in non-Darcian regime at different pressure gradients was investigated. The porous medium, wherein a liquid flow was present, a drop with different fluid properties was forced to pass. The drop impact with porous medium leads to different patterns: break-up, trap, and coalescence. Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), which has shown high capability and flexibility in relation with multiphase flows combined with porous media, have been implemented. The effective dimensionless numbers related to this flow (such as, Ohnesorge, Capillary number, and density ratio of the two phases) were thoroughly analyzed. The values of exerted dimensionless pressure were 0.000108, 0.000144, and 0.000180 and the range of Ohnesorge was 0.19-0.76. Our results show that there are high complexity and many effective factors, which necessitate their concurrent examinations. The effects of factors connected to drop and secondary phase properties (such as, surface tension and density ratio), along with flow characteristics (such as pressure gradient), are considerable. Consequently, the simulations of this study, using certain assumptions and methods, show excellent capability to predict drop behavior in porous media, which is the valuable feature of this study.