Numerical Simulation of Density-Driven Flow and Heat Transport Processes in Porous Media Using the Network Method

Manuel Cánovas, Iván Alhama, Gonzalo García, Emilio Trigueros and Francisco Alhama
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Manuel Cánovas: Metallurgical and Mining Engineering Department, Universidad Católica del Norte, Avda. Angamos, Antofagasta 0610, Chile
Iván Alhama: Civil Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 52 30203 Cartagena, Spain
Gonzalo García: Civil Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 52 30203 Cartagena, Spain
Emilio Trigueros: Mining, Geologic and Cartographic Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 52 30203 Cartagena, Spain
Francisco Alhama: Applied Physics Department, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 52 30203 Cartagena, Spain

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Density-driven flow and heat transport processes in 2-D porous media scenarios are governed by coupled, non-linear, partial differential equations that normally have to be solved numerically. In the present work, a model based on the network method simulation is designed and applied to simulate these processes, providing steady state patterns that demonstrate its computational power and reliability. The design is relatively simple and needs very few rules. Two applications in which heat is transported by natural convection in confined and saturated media are studied: slender boxes heated from below (a kind of Bénard problem) and partially heated horizontal plates in rectangular domains (the Elder problem). The streamfunction and temperature patterns show that the results are coherent with those of other authors: steady state patterns and heat transfer depend both on the Rayleigh number and on the characteristic Darcy velocity derived from the values of the hydrological, thermal and geometrical parameters of the problems.

Keywords: density driven flow; porous media; streamfunction formulation; network method; natural convection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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