Kinematical measurement of hydraulic tortuosity of fluid flow in porous media

Y. Jin (), J. B. Dong (), X. Li () and Y. Wu ()
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Y. Jin: School of Resource and Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, Henan 454003, P. R. China;
J. B. Dong: School of Resource and Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, Henan 454003, P. R. China
X. Li: School of Resource and Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, Henan 454003, P. R. China
Y. Wu: School of Resource and Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, Henan 454003, P. R. China

International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), 2015, vol. 26, issue 02, 1-21

Abstract: It is hard to experimentally or analytically derive the hydraulic tortuosity (τ) of porous media flow because of their complex microstructures. In this work, we propose a kinematical measurement method for τ by introducing the concept of local tortuosity, which is defined as the ratio of fluid particle velocity to its component along the macro flow. And then, the calculation model of τ is analytically deduced in terms of that τ is the mean value of the local tortuosity. To avoid the impact from the singularity of local tortuosity, the velocity is normalized, and τ is then approximated by the ratio of the mean normalized velocity to the average value of its component along the macro-flow direction. The new estimation method is verified by flow through different types of porous media via the lattice Boltzmann method, and the relationships between permeabilities and tortuosities obtained by different methods are examined. The numerical results show that tortuosity by the novel approach is in good agreement with the existing theory, and the kinematic definition of hydraulic tortuosity is also proven.

Keywords: Porous media flow; hydraulic tortuosity; Lattice Boltzmann method; velocity field; Kozeny-Carmon equation; 47.11.Qr; 47.56.+r; 47.10.-g (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1142/S0129183115500175

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