Comparison of permeability of model porous media between SPH and LB

Understanding how the permeability of a porous medium changes as function of solid fraction and pore geometry is vital in many significant areas. Here, we construct a number of different porous media via computer methods. We then simulate the flow of a viscous liquid through the solid packing using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Lattice Boltzmann (LB) methods. Qualitative comparisons of flow between the two methods are generally good as are the quantitative permeability comparisons. The relative computational efficiency of both methods is examined with the LB method being superior to SPH for this application.