Microscale Simulation of Single Phase Flow in Porous Media: Comparism with Blake – Kozeny equation

Abstract

The search for the principal parameter used to mimic the behavior of fluids in porous media at varying degree of particle sizes was carried out in this work. Gradation of 2D slices of DEM images was processed and restored to 3D micro – geometry in the ScanIP module of SimplewareTM. FE Grid discretization stretchable in millions and the lower velocities Navier – Stoke’s equation with impermeable side wall boundary condition was solved on the three-dimensional micro – geometry in the physics flow module of SimplewareTM. This was done for packing arrangement of 1 - 3mm particle sizes and a differing degree in volume fraction. The Blake – Kozeny model was used to validate the DEM/CFD values of absolute permeability obtained for the fluid phase of the micro - geometry. The modeled values agree reasonably well with the BK values of permeability obtained within the ranges of Kozeny – constant values reported in the literature. K value of 4.832 was obtained using Lagrangian interpolation with the BK permeabilities 99.73% in agreement with modeled values.