Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams

The development and validation of a grid-based pore-scale numerical modelling methodology applied to five different commercial metal foam samples is described. The 3-D digital representation of the foam geometry was obtained by the use of X-ray microcomputer tomography scans, and macroscopic propert...

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Main Authors: Carvalho, T. P. de, Morvan, Herve, Hargreaves, David, Oun, Hatem, Kennedy, A.
Format: Article
Published: Springer 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41818/
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author Carvalho, T. P. de
Morvan, Herve
Hargreaves, David
Oun, Hatem
Kennedy, A.
author_facet Carvalho, T. P. de
Morvan, Herve
Hargreaves, David
Oun, Hatem
Kennedy, A.
author_sort Carvalho, T. P. de
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The development and validation of a grid-based pore-scale numerical modelling methodology applied to five different commercial metal foam samples is described. The 3-D digital representation of the foam geometry was obtained by the use of X-ray microcomputer tomography scans, and macroscopic properties such as porosity, specific surface and pore size distribution are directly calculated from tomographic data. Pressure drop measurements were performed on all the samples under a wide range of flow velocities, with focus on the turbulent flow regime. Airflow pore-scale simulations were carried out solving the continuity and Navier–Stokes equations using a commercial finite volume code. The feasibility of using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models to account for the turbulence within the pore space was evaluated. Macroscopic transport quantities are calculated from the pore-scale simulations by averaging. Permeability and Forchheimer coefficient values are obtained from the pressure gradient data for both experiments and simulations and used for validation. Results have shown that viscous losses are practically negligible under the conditions investigated and pressure losses are dominated by inertial effects. Simulations performed on samples with varying thickness in the flow direction showed the pressure gradient to be affected by the sample thickness. However, as the thickness increased, the pressure gradient tended towards an asymptotic value.
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spelling nottingham-418182020-05-04T18:37:35Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41818/ Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams Carvalho, T. P. de Morvan, Herve Hargreaves, David Oun, Hatem Kennedy, A. The development and validation of a grid-based pore-scale numerical modelling methodology applied to five different commercial metal foam samples is described. The 3-D digital representation of the foam geometry was obtained by the use of X-ray microcomputer tomography scans, and macroscopic properties such as porosity, specific surface and pore size distribution are directly calculated from tomographic data. Pressure drop measurements were performed on all the samples under a wide range of flow velocities, with focus on the turbulent flow regime. Airflow pore-scale simulations were carried out solving the continuity and Navier–Stokes equations using a commercial finite volume code. The feasibility of using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models to account for the turbulence within the pore space was evaluated. Macroscopic transport quantities are calculated from the pore-scale simulations by averaging. Permeability and Forchheimer coefficient values are obtained from the pressure gradient data for both experiments and simulations and used for validation. Results have shown that viscous losses are practically negligible under the conditions investigated and pressure losses are dominated by inertial effects. Simulations performed on samples with varying thickness in the flow direction showed the pressure gradient to be affected by the sample thickness. However, as the thickness increased, the pressure gradient tended towards an asymptotic value. Springer 2017-03-15 Article PeerReviewed Carvalho, T. P. de, Morvan, Herve, Hargreaves, David, Oun, Hatem and Kennedy, A. (2017) Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams. Transport in Porous Media, 117 (2). pp. 311-336. ISSN 1573-1634 Metal foam CFD Pore-scale Tomography Pressure drop https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-017-0835-y doi:10.1007/s11242-017-0835-y doi:10.1007/s11242-017-0835-y
spellingShingle Metal foam
CFD
Pore-scale
Tomography
Pressure drop
Carvalho, T. P. de
Morvan, Herve
Hargreaves, David
Oun, Hatem
Kennedy, A.
Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
title Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
title_full Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
title_fullStr Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
title_full_unstemmed Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
title_short Pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
title_sort pore-scale numerical investigation of pressure drop behaviour across open-cell metal foams
topic Metal foam
CFD
Pore-scale
Tomography
Pressure drop
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41818/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41818/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41818/