Drag and heat transfer closures for realistic numerically generated random open-cell solid foams using an immersed boundary method.

In this paper, we apply a novel immersed boundary method to simulate pore-scale level fluid flow and convective heat transfer in realistic numerically generated open-cell solid foams in a Cartesian computational domain. Five different periodic foam samples of varying porosities ( ε = [ 0.877 , 0.948 ] ) are generated by numerically mimicking the actual foam formation process (minimizing surface area). The step-by-step procedure for generating the periodic foam geometries is presented. The specific surface areas of the generated foams of different porosities are compared with real foam geometries showing a reasonable agreement. The Reynolds number ( Re ) is varied from Re ≈ 0 (creeping flow) to Re ≈ 500 , and finally drag and Nusselt correlations have been proposed. A detailed analysis is presented on the local velocity and temperature field for the fluid-solid interaction in a complex cellular porous medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]