Effect of fluid-porous interface conditions on steady flow around and through a porous circular cylinder

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to implement the numerical analysis based on finite volume method to compare the effects of stress-jump (SJ) and stress-continuity (SC) conditions on flow structure around and through a porous circular cylinder.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a steady flow of a viscous, incompressible fluid around and through a porous circular cylinder of diameter “D,” using Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer’s equation in the porous region, is discussed. The SJ condition proposed by Ochoa-Tapia and Whitaker is applied at the porous-fluid interface and compared with the traditional interfacial condition based on the SC condition in fluid and porous media. Equations with the relevant boundary conditions are numerically solved using a finite volume approach. In this study, Reynolds and Darcy numbers are varied within the ranges of 1 < Re < 40 and 10-7 < Da < 10-2, respectively, and the porosities are e=0.45, 0.7 and 0.95.

Findings

Results show that the SJ condition leads to a much smaller boundary layer within porous medium near the interface as compared to the SC condition. Two interfacial conditions yield similar results with decrease in porosity.

Originality/value

There is no published research in the literature about the effects of important parameters, such as Porosity and Darcy numbers on different fluid-porous interface conditions for a porous cylinder and comparison the effects of SJ and SC conditions on flow structure around and through a porous circular cylinder.

Citation

Bovand, M., Rashidi, S., Dehesht, M. and Abolfazli Esfahani, J. (2015), "Effect of fluid-porous interface conditions on steady flow around and through a porous circular cylinder", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 25 No. 7, pp. 1658-1681. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-10-2014-0295