Permeability (electromagnetism)

Geotechnical engineering

Capillary action

Biochemistry

Mathematical optimization

Solver

Geology

Porosity

Fluid dynamics

Thermodynamics

Physics

Two-phase flow

Membrane

Mathematics

Flow (mathematics)

Multiphase flow

Mathematical analysis

Computational fluid dynamics

Porous medium

Chemistry

Partial differential equation

Control volume

Darcy's law

Mechanics

Journal of Computational Physics X

An open-sourced multiphase Darcy-Brinkman approach is proposed to simulate two-phase flow in hybrid systems containing both solid-free regions and porous matrices. This micro-continuum model is rooted in elementary physics and volume averaging principles, where a unique set of partial differential equations is used to represent flow in both regions and scales. The crux of the proposed model is that it tends asymptotically towards the Navier-Stokes volume-of-fluid approach in solid-free regions and towards the multiphase Darcy equations in porous regions. Unlike existing multiscale multiphase solvers, it can match analytical predictions of capillary, relative permeability, and gravitational effects at both the pore and Darcy scales. Through its open-source implementation, hybridPorousInterFoam, the proposed approach marks the extension of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation packages into porous multiscale, multiphase systems. The versatility of the solver is illustrated using applications to two-phase flow in a fractured porous matrix and wave interaction with a porous coastal barrier.

Multiphase flow modeling in multiscale porous media: An open-source micro-continuum approach