Numerical Simulation of Flow Through Absorbing Porous Media Part 1: Rigid Porous Media

Abstract

The performance of the absorbing porous media is an important factor in several practical applications such as hygiene industries. The primary goal of hygiene products is to absorb and retain a liquid. In these types of products, the liquid flow is often driven by a strong capillary force. Hence, computational modelling of the liquid absorption process within rigid porous media would be helpful to design or modify these products. This paper demonstrates the application of a newly proposed approach for modelling liquid absorption within rigid porous media. The proposed modelling approach uses fewer input parameters than previously used methods in literature which make it simple to implement. The wicking heights, predicted by computational fluid dynamics simulations, are in good agreement with the experimental and analytical data. The capability of the method to model the flow through absorbing porous media is explored by considering different flow cases. For the case where the flow front hits the walls of a porous domain, the results showed interesting patterns of the flow front under the action of gravity. It is observed that the nature of flow front propagation becomes 1D as time passes.Finally, the newly proposed cell zone condition to mimic the liquid hold up showed promising results by allowing only air to pass through the porous domain.