Transport properties of heterogeneous materials. Combining computerised X-ray micro-tomography and direct numerical simulations

Feasibility of a method for finding flow permeability of porous materials, based on combining computerised X-ray micro-tomography and numerical simulations, is assessed. The permeability is found by solving fluid flow through the complex 3D pore structures obtained by tomography for actual material samples. We estimate overall accuracy of the method and compare numerical and experimental results. Factors contributing to uncertainty of the method include numerical error arising from the finite resolution of tomographic images and the rather small sample size available with the present tomographic techniques. The total uncertainty of computed values of permeability is, however, not essentially larger than that of experimental results. We conclude that the method provides a feasible alternative for finding fluid flow properties of the kind of materials studied. It can be used to estimate all components of permeability tensor and is useful in cases where direct measurements are not achievable. Analogous methods can be applied to other modes of transport, such as diffusion and heat conduction.

[1]  Antti I. Koponen,et al.  The 3D structure of fabric and its relationship to liquid and vapor transport , 2004 .

[2]  J. Drummond,et al.  Laminar viscous flow through regular arrays of parallel solid cylinders , 1984 .

[3]  J. Holmberg,et al.  Modeling of Power-law Fluid Flow Through Fiber Beds , 2006 .

[4]  Stepan Vladimirovitch Lomov,et al.  Modelling of permeability of textile reinforcements: lattice Boltzmann method ☆ , 2004 .

[5]  M Kataja,et al.  Simulation of liquid penetration in paper. , 2006, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[6]  Ahmet H. Aydilek,et al.  Laboratory validation of lattice Boltzmann method for modeling pore-scale flow in granular materials , 2006 .

[7]  Andreas Acrivos,et al.  Slow flow past periodic arrays of cylinders with application to heat transfer , 1982 .

[8]  Erdinc Eker,et al.  Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Fluid Flow in Synthetic Fractures , 2006 .

[9]  X. Thibault,et al.  Synchrotron radiation microtomography applied to investigation of paper , 2005 .

[10]  D. F. James,et al.  The permeability of fibrous porous media , 1986 .

[11]  Walter Fourie,et al.  The Simulation of Pore Scale Fluid Flow with Real World Geometries Obtained from X-Ray Computed Tomography , 2007 .

[12]  D. Kehrwald.  Parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of complex flows , 2004 .

[13]  S. Succi.  The Lattice Boltzmann Equation for Fluid Dynamics and Beyond , 2001 .

[14]  D. d'Humières,et al.  Two-relaxation-time Lattice Boltzmann scheme: About parametrization, velocity, pressure and mixed boundary conditions , 2008 .

[15]  Flow-induced deformation of non-crimp fabrics during composites manufacturing , 2009 .

[16]  Ignace Verpoest,et al.  Permeability of textile reinforcements: Simulation, influence of shear and validation , 2008 .

[17]  Craig T Simmons,et al.  The compleat Darcy: New lessons learned from the first English translation of les fontaines publiques de la Ville de Dijon , 2005, Ground water.

[18]  Andris Jakovics,et al.  A Statistical Approach to Permeability of Clustered Fibre Reinforcements , 2004 .

[19]  J. Boon.  The Lattice Boltzmann Equation for Fluid Dynamics and Beyond , 2003 .

[20]  P. Levitz,et al.  Toolbox for 3D imaging and modeling of porous media: Relationship with transport properties , 2007 .

[21]  Y. Keehm,et al.  Computational estimation of compaction band permeability in sandstone , 2006 .

[22]  A. Andersson,et al.  Flow through a Two-Scale Porosity Material , 2009 .

[23]  Dominique d'Humières,et al.  Multireflection boundary conditions for lattice Boltzmann models. , 2003, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[24]  I. Ginzburg.  Consistent lattice Boltzmann schemes for the Brinkman model of porous flow and infinite Chapman-Enskog expansion. , 2008, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[25]  John G. Hagedorn,et al.  Multiscale modeling of fluid transport in heterogeneous materials using discrete Boltzmann methods , 2002 .

[26]  A method for measuring Darcian flow permeability of thin compressed fibre mats , 2009 .

[27]  D. Roose,et al.  Computation of Permeability of Textile Reinforcements , 2005 .

[28]  Andreas Wiegmann,et al.  Computation of the permeability of porous materials from their microstructure by FFF-Stokes , 2007 .

[29]  Staffan Lundström,et al.  Flow through porous media at moderate Reynolds number , 2006 .

[30]  Nicos Martys,et al.  Virtual permeametry on microtomographic images , 2004 .

[31]  Shri Ramaswamy,et al.  Numerical analysis of fluid flow through fibrous porous materials , 2003 .

[32]  Ronaldo I. Borja,et al.  Calculating the effective permeability of sandstone with multiscale lattice Boltzmann/finite element simulations , 2006 .

[33]  Behnam Pourdeyhimi,et al.  A realistic approach for modeling permeability of fibrous media : 3-D imaging coupled with CFD simulation , 2008 .

[34]  J.Timonen,et al.  Lattice-Boltzmann and finite-difference simulations for the permeability for three-dimensional porous media , 2002, cond-mat/0202525.

[35]  A. Jakovics,et al.  Permeability network model for non-crimp fabrics , 2006 .

[36]  X. Thibault,et al.  Structural Analysis by X-Ray Microtomography of a Strained Nonwoven Papermaker Felt , 2002 .

[37]  S. Succi,et al.  Three-Dimensional Flows in Complex Geometries with the Lattice Boltzmann Method , 1989 .

[38]  Cass T. Miller,et al.  An evaluation of lattice Boltzmann schemes for porous medium flow simulation , 2006 .

[39]  M. Saar,et al.  Permeability‐porosity relationship in vesicular basalts , 1999 .

[40]  X. Thibault,et al.  Estimation of microstructural properties from synchrotron X-ray microtomography and determination of the REV in paper materials , 2007 .

[41]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  Permeability of Three-Dimensional Random Fiber Webs , 1998 .

[42]  François Bertrand,et al.  Effect of particle size distribution and packing compression on fluid permeability as predicted by lattice-Boltzmann simulations , 2009, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[43]  M. Nordlund,et al.  Effect of Multi-Scale Porosity in Local Permeability Modelling of Non-Crimp Fabrics , 2008 .