Goal: Fluid flow through porous media (materials containing pores or voids) is an interesting but also difficult and complex field of study. Fluid flow through a porous medium usually consists of an interpenetrating fluid or gas through a solid labyrinth. This solid labyrinth could for example be a randomly packed bed of beads, rocks, soil or sand or a pack of stacked straws.
The concept of porous media is widely encountered or used in the industry; filtration, ventilation, heat transfer, bio-engineering, drainage, oil extraction, drying processes and many more. These porous media are usually part of larger systems. The complex geometries of the porous media themselves are time consuming and almost impossible to simulate accurately in full detail. However, the porous medium can be modelled as a ‘black box’ that induces a pressure drop in the larger system and represents the characteristics of the porous material.
In order to replace the porous medium with this ‘black box’, the flow characteristics through the porous medium needs to be determined. An experimental method for the characterization of the porous medium has been developed and validated.