Numerical Investigation on Mass Dispersion in Turbulent Flows through Porous Media with High Porosity

With porous combustor as engineering background, the mass dispersion process of methane and air in highly porous media is studied numerically based on a simplified model for the periodical structure of the porous media. The computational results obtained from the microscopic flow field within a unit cell, i.e., a representative elementary volume, into which a low Reynolds number turbulent model is incorporated, are employed to compute the longitudinal and transverse dispersion coefficients through a volume average approach. The results are compared with experimental data and empirical formulas available in the literature, and a reasonable agreement is achieved.