Modelling of Droplet Capture in an Open-Cell Metal Foam at the Pore and Macroscopic Scales

• Published in: Transport in porous media Vol. 148; no. 1; pp. 1 - 25
• Main Authors: de Carvalho, Thiago P., Hargreaves, David M., Morvan, Hervé P., Klingsporn, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.05.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Civil Engineering; Classical and Continuum Physics; Coefficients; Computational fluid dynamics; Droplets; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Fluid flow; Foamed metals; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Hydrology/Water Resources; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Macroscopic models; Mathematical models; Metal foams; Open cell porosity; Particle tracking; Porous media; Reynolds number; Scale models; Droplet capture; Lagrangian particle tracking; Computational fluid dynamics; Metal foam
• ISSN: 0169-3913; 1573-1634
• DOI: 10.1007/s11242-023-01918-4

Open-cell metal foams are often used in applications where particulate and/or droplet capture is important. Here a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling approach is described which models the metal foam at both the pore-scale and the macroscopic scale. At the pore-scale, the detailed internal geometry of the foam is included and the flow field and droplet tracking and capture is modelled explicitly. At this scale, a coefficient is found for each metal foam that relates the distance a droplet can freely travel through the foam to both the droplet diameter and the Darcian velocity in the porous medium. Then, at the macroscopic scale, the coefficient from the pore-scale droplet capture simulations is used in a novel stochastic particle extinction model. Here, the droplets travel through a porous zone and are removed from the model, the probability of which is determined by the coefficient from the pore-scale modelling. A test case is described in which the macroscopic model is verified against the pore-scale model with acceptable levels of accuracy. Article Highlights Single phase CFD and Lagrangian particle tracking are carried out in a range of open-cell metal foams at the pore-scale. A capture probability of the droplets as a function of droplet diameter and Reynolds number for each metal foam is found. The probability of capture is used in a new macroscale droplet capture model, based on Lagrangian particle tracking.