Modelling of Droplet Capture in an Open-Cell Metal Foam at the Pore and Macroscopic Scales
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...
Saved in:
Published in | Transport in porous media Vol. 148; no. 1; pp. 1 - 25 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Dordrecht
Springer Netherlands
01.05.2023
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | 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. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 0169-3913 1573-1634 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11242-023-01918-4 |