2020 Volume 61 Issue 5 Pages 1026-1031
In this study, we studied the elementary volume (EV) size in pore scale simulations of flow in sphere packs and evaluated existing drag models in wide porosity range. The sphere packs in different porosities were modeled with the discrete-element method. Through a parametric study, we confirmed that as the EV size grows large, the simulated values of porosity, permeability and hydraulic tortuosity nearly converge to their respective constants. This trend agrees well with previously reported experimental and numerical results. Using the EV size determined by the parametric study, we simulated the inertial flow in sphere packs of porosity range between 0.3 and 0.95. We found that the simulated drag force disagreed drastically with the existing drag models for high porosity range. Accordingly, we improved the Di Felice equation suitable in high porosity range.
