Numerical Study on the Tortuosity of Porous Media via Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract. In this paper, we simulate the pressure driven fluid flow at the pore scalelevel through 2-D porous media,which is composed of different curved channels viathelatticeBoltzmannmethod. With thisdirectsimulation,therelationbetweenthetor-tuosityandthepermeabilityisexamined. Thenumericalresultsareingoodagreementwith the existing theory. AMS subject classifications : 76S05,80M25 Key words : Tortuosity, lattice Boltzmann, porous media, pore scale. 1 Introduction Fluid flow through porous media is a common phenomenon in science and engineering.Thus,thepredictionof thepermeability, as the main transportpropertyin porousmedia,isalong-standingproblemofgreatpractical importance. Existingexperimentresultsandtheoretical works [1–5] show that the permeability of various porous materials is deter-mined by theirstructureparameterssuch as porosity,specific surface area, tortuosityetc.Amongtheexistingtheories,theKozeny-Carman equation may be the mostfamous one,which can be expressedas: k = ǫ 3 k 0 T