Fluid Flow through Porous Media: The Role of Stagnant Zones

We investigate fluid flow through disordered porous media by direct simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations in a two-dimensional percolation structure. We find, in contrast to the log-normal distribution for the local currents found in the analog random resistor network, that over roughly 5 orders of magnitude the distribution n (E) of local kinetic energy E follows a power law, with n (E) E^-, where 0ex{0ex}=0ex{0ex}0. 900. 03 for the entire cluster, while 0ex{0ex}=0ex{0ex}0. 640. 05 for fluid flow in the backbone only. Thus the ``stagnant'' zones play a significant role in transport through porous media, in contrast to the dangling ends for the analogous electrical problem.