Flow Characteristics of Gas Permeation through a PVF Porous Tube

Abstract

PVF (polyvinyl formal) porous materials have attractive properties, such as noise attenuation, good structural integrity, thermal and chemical stability, high permeability and large specific surface area, for many flow-through applications. Several characteristics of the porous material will have an impact on the permeability, and gas flow and diffusion. However, the shape and the design of the device may also have significant impact on the gas flow. A porous media model and Darcy-Forchheimer principle were used as the basic theoretical frame. The unified governing equations were used to describe the compressible flow in and out of a PVF porous tube. A robust NND numerical scheme was used to discretize the equations and the TDBC (time-dependent boundary conditions) were used to treat the nonreflective boundaries. Numerical simulations of an interior and exterior flow field of a PVF porous tube were completed. The detailed flow characteristics of the inner and outer flow fields of the tube were obtained. The velocity distribution of the outside of the tube compare very well with the experimental data.