LBM AND MD SIMULATIONS OF A FLOW IN A NANO-POROUS MEDIUM

To evaluate a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for the three dimensional continuum to non-continuum transitional flow regimes, the results are compared with those of the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations by the Leonard-Jones potential. The flow field considered is in a modeled nanoporous medium whose porosity is 0.88 and consists of square cylinder rods. The equations used in the LBM are modified lattice Boltzmann equations introducing Knudsen number dependency. In the MD simulations, novel boundary treatments are applied. The results of a nano-porous flow at a Knudsen number Kn=0.24 show reasonable agreement in both the simulation methods and confirm the reliability of the LBM. The difference in the predicted values of the permeability, however, implies that the wall boundary condition of the LBM requires further improvement.