Assessing the Influence of Fluid Properties on Darcian Flow Dynamics in Porous Media: A Detailed Study of Liquids and Gases

The study intends to investigate the effects of fluid characteristics on the Darcian flow through porous media, which would help to perceive the merits of its employment in different designs of porous media systems. To systematically conduct this aim, both theoretical modeling and numerical simulations are used while using different incompressible fluids of four liquids (water, oil, n-heptane, and n-hexane) and three gases (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane). In this regard, an acceptance between the simulation results and the experimental findings is confirmed. The results demonstrate the actual effect of friction factor and pressure gradient on the fluid properties of viscosity and density. An increase in Reynolds numbers caused a decrease in the friction factor, which signify a shift in dominance from viscous to inertial forces. The pressure gradient rises with higher inlet velocities, proposing that a higher flow rate necessitates a larger pressure differential to overwhelmed resistance of the porous structure.