Mitrichev I., Jhensa A., Koltsova E., 2016, On the Dependence of Flow Properties on Porosity in an Open-Cell Foam, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 52, 949-954.
In this work the flow properties in an open-cell foam are studied at several values of porosity by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Reynold-Averaged Navier Stokes equations are solved (RANS approach) on a finite-volume three-dimensional mesh. The geometry used is a body centered cubic (bcc) or a face centered cubic (fcc) regular packing of spheres, where spheres represent the foam voidage. Analytical expressions for the model porosity are derived. The simulations are performed with the use of k-e realizable model. The quantitative assessment of pressure drop, flow unifomity and turbulent intensity is given at different levels of porosity. The lowest porosity corresponds to the highest turbulence intensity and pressure drop but the lowest flow uniformity. The highest turbulence intensity is obtained for the fcc geometry. The results confirm that there would be a compomise between the allowed pressure loss and turbulence intensity. This fact should be taken into account when applying open-cell foams for the intensification of mass-transfer limited processes.
