Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Mass Transfer Coefficients for Chemically Reactive Flows in Porous Media

Abstract

We present lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulations for the mass transfer coefficient from bulk flows to pore surfaces in chemically reactive flows for both ordered and disordered porous structures. The ordered porous structure under consideration consists of cylinders in a staggered arrangement and in a line arrangement, while the disordered one is composed of randomly placed cylinders. Results show that the ordered porous structure of staggered cylinders exhibits a larger mass transfer coefficient than ordered porous structure of inline cylinders does. It is also found that in the disordered porous structures, the Sherwood number (Sh) increases linearly with Reynolds number (Re) at the creeping flow regime; the Sh and Re exhibit a one-half power law dependence at the inertial flow regime. Meanwhile, for Schmidt number (Sc) between 1 and 10, the Sh is proportional to Sc0.8; for Sc between 10 and 100, the Sh is proportional to Sc0.3.