Experimental measurements of the pressure drop across porous metals have been compared with computational fluid dynamics simulations, for the first time, for structures typified by large pores with small interconnecting "windows". Structural information for the porous structures was obtained from X-ray computed tomography and a robust methodology for developing a representative volume element is described. The modelling approach used was able to reliably predict the pressure drop behaviour within the Forchheimer regime. The methodology was extended to simulate flow through geometrically-adapted, "semi-virtual" pore structures and this approach could prove to be an invaluable tool in the design of porous metal components for applications involving fluid flow.

The permeability of virtual macroporous structures generated by sphere packing models: comparison with analytical models. Scripta Materialia, 124 . pp. 30-33. ISSN 1359-6462 Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34471/1/DEM%20CFD%20-%20scripta%20mat.pdf Copyright and reuse:The The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractRealistic porous structures typical of those made by replication of packed beds of spherical particles have been produced by a novel modelling method. Fluid dynamics simulation of the permeability of these structures agrees well with experimental measurements and similar modelling of structures derived from X-ray tomographic images. By varying the model structures the "bottleneck" flow concept proposed by analytical models in the literature was substantiated, confirming the high dependence of permeability on the size of the windows connecting the pores but also highlighting the need for accurate determination of the connectivity of the pores for these models to be accurate.

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Detailed structural characterization and experimental measurement of airflow across open‐celled aluminum foam structures with near‐spherical cells varying in pore sizes and interstices are presented herein. The aluminum foam structures were produced by infiltrating liquid aluminum into convergent gaps created by packed beds of near‐spherical hydrosoft salt beds varying in particle sizes, packing densities, and infiltration pressures. A quantitative assessment of the unit pressure drops developed across these structures show that viscous and inertial terms of these structures were observed to greatly depend on the shape and structural macroscopic parameters of the porous medium. © 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: 1355–1364, 2019