Kilian Weishaupt

Zusammenfassung

Fluid flow through layered materials with different wetting behavior is observed in a wide range of applications in biological, environmental and technical systems. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the occuring transport mechanisms of the fluids at the interface between the layered constituents. Of special interest is the water transport in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Here, it is necessary to understand the transport mechanisms of water throughout the cell constituents especially on the cathode side, where the excess water has to be removed. This is crucial to choose optimal operating conditions and improve the overall cell performance. Pore-scale modeling of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and gas distributor has been established as a favorable technique to investigate the ongoing processes. Investigating the interface between the hydrophobic porous GDL and the hydrophilic gas distributor, a particular challenge is the combination and interaction of the different material structures and wetting properties at the interface and its influence on the flow. In this paper, a modeling approach is presented which captures the influence of a hydrophilic domain on the flow in a hydrophobic porous domain at the interface between the two domains. A pore-network model is used as the basis of the developed concept which is extended to allow the modeling of mixed-wet interactions at the interface. The functionality of the model is demonstrated using basic example configurations with one and several interface pores and it is applied to a realistic GDL representation in contact with a channel-land structured gas distributor.

Zusammenfassung

We present a fully coupled pore-network/free-flow model providing pore-scale insight into drying processes. We solve the Navier–Stokes equations with component transport in the free-flow region, coupled to a dynamic two-phase, two-component pore-network model (PNM) in the porous domain. The dynamic multi-physics model allows to temporally resolve drying processes in-between capillary equilibrium states. All simulations are non-isothermal and use pressure- and temperature-depended fluid properties. Carefully chosen coupling conditions and a monolithic solver ensure local conservation of mass, momentum, and energy fluxes, in particular at the interface between both model domains. We solve for wetting and non-wetting fluid pressure fields and consider advective gas transport in the network. Numerical examples demonstrate that the coupled model is able to cover a wide range of physical processes relevant for drying and show the mutual interaction of the two subregions. The model is implemented in the modular open-source framework DuMux such that extensions are straight-forward.

Zusammenfassung

We present a fully coupled pore-network/free-flow model providing pore-scale insight into drying processes. We solve the Navier–Stokes equations with component transport in the free-flow region, coupled to a dynamic two-phase, two-component pore-network model (PNM) in the porous domain. The dynamic multi-physics model allows to temporally resolve drying processes in-between capillary equilibrium states. All simulations are non-isothermal and use pressure- and temperature-depended fluid properties. Carefully chosen coupling conditions and a monolithic solver ensure local conservation of mass, momentum, and energy fluxes, in particular at the interface between both model domains. We solve for wetting and non-wetting fluid pressure fields and consider advective gas transport in the network. Numerical examples demonstrate that the coupled model is able to cover a wide range of physical processes relevant for drying and show the mutual interaction of the two subregions. The model is implemented in the modular open-source framework DuMux such that extensions are straight-forward.

Zusammenfassung

We present version 3 of the open-source simulator for flow and transport processes in porous media DuMux. DuMux is based on the modular C++ framework Dune (Distributed and Unified Numerics Environment) and is developed as a research code with a focus on modularity and reusability. We describe recent efforts in improving the transparency and efficiency of the development process and community-building, as well as efforts towards quality assurance and reproducible research. In addition to a major redesign of many simulation components in order to facilitate setting up complex simulations in DuMux, version 3 introduces a more consistent abstraction of finite volume schemes. Finally, the new framework for multi-domain simulations is described, and three numerical examples demonstrate its flexibility.

Zusammenfassung

We present a dual network model to simulate coupled single-phase flow and energy transport in porous media including conditions under which local thermal equilibrium cannot be assumed. The models target applications such as the simulation of catalytic reactors, micro-fluidic experiments, or micro-cooling devices. The new technique is based on a recently developed algorithm that extracts both the pore space and the solid grain matrix of a porous medium from CT images into an interconnected network representation. We simulate coupled heat and mass transfer in these networks simultaneously, allowing naturally to model scenarios with heterogeneous temperature distributions in both void space and solid matrix. The model is compared with 3D conjugate heat transfer simulations for both conduction- and convection-dominated scenarios. It is shown to reproduce effective thermal conductivities over a wide range of fluid to solid thermal conductivity ratios with a single parameter set. Morevoer, it captures local thermal nonequilibrium effects in a micro-cooling device scenario.

Zusammenfassung

In this study, the complexity of a steady-state flow through porous media is revealed using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Micro-particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) is applied to construct movies of colloidal particles. The calculated velocity vector fields from images are further utilized to obtain laminar flow streamlines. Fluid flow through a single straight channel is used to confirm that quantitative CLSM measurements can be conducted. Next, the coupling between the flow in a channel and the movement within an intersecting dead-end region is studied. Quantitative CLSM measurements confirm the numerically determined coupling parameter from earlier work of the authors. The fluid flow complexity is demonstrated using a porous medium consisting of a regular grid of pores in contact with a flowing fluid channel. The porous media structure was further used as the simulation domain for numerical modeling. Both the simulation, based on solving Stokes equations, and the experimental data show presence of non-trivial streamline trajectories across the pore structures. In view of the results, we argue that the hydrodynamic mixing is a combination of non-trivial streamline routing and Brownian motion by pore-scale diffusion. The results provide insight into challenges in upscaling hydrodynamic dispersion from pore scale to representative elementary volume (REV) scale. Furthermore, the successful quantitative validation of CLSM-based data from a microfluidic model fed by an electrical syringe pump provided a valuable benchmark for qualitative validation of computer simulation results.

Zusammenfassung

Carbon dioxide density-driven dissolution in a water-filled laboratory flume of the dimensions 60 cm length, 40 cm height, 1 cm thickness, was visualized using a pH-sensitive color indicator. We focus on atmospheric pressure conditions, like in caves where CO2 concentrations are typically higher. Varying concentrations of carbon dioxide were applied as boundary conditions at the top of the experimental setup, leading to the onset of convective fingering at differing times. The data were used to validate a numerical model implemented in the numerical simulator DuMux. The model solves the Navier–Stokes equations for density-induced water flow with concentration-dependent fluid density and a transport equation, including advective and diffusive processes for the carbon dioxide dissolved in water. The model was run in 2D, 3D, and pseudo-3D on two different grids. Without any calibration or fitting of parameters, the results of the comparison between experiment and simulation show satisfactory agreement with respect to the onset time of convective fingering, and the number and the dynamics of the fingers. Grid refinement matters, in particular, in the uppermost part where fingers develop. The 2D simulations consistently overestimated the fingering dynamics. This successful validation of the model is the prerequisite for employing it in situations with background flow and for a future study of karstification mechanisms related to CO2-induced fingering in caves.