Modelling of Droplet Capture in an Open-Cell Metal Foam at the Pore and Macroscopic Scales

de Carvalho, Thiago P.; Hargreaves, David M.; Morvan, Hervé P.; Klingsporn, Michael

Abstract

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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 18, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 24, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 25, 2023
• Journal: Transport in Porous Media
• Print ISSN: 0169-3913
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-1634
• Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 148
• Pages: 1-25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-023-01918-4
• Keywords: Droplet capture; Metal foam; Computational fluid dynamics; Lagrangian particle tracking
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/19009788
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11242-023-01918-4