Modeling of Darcy-Forchheimer drag for fluid flow across a bank of circular cylinders

In the present investigation, an incompressible fluid flow across a bank of circular cylinders is studied and modeled as a non-Darcy flow through a porous medium. The continuity equation and the momentum equation in pore scale are solved on a Cartesian grid system. To circumvent the numerical difficulties arising from the flow domain of irregular shape, the weighting function scheme along with the APPLE algorithm and the SIS solver is employed. The Darcy-Forchheimer drag is then determined from the resulting volumetric flow rate under a prescribed pressure drop. The result indicates that the permeability approaches zero at the particular porosity of 0.2146 when the fluid flow across the cylinders becomes impossible. In addition, the pressure drag (Forchheimer drag) is found to contribute a significant resistance at large porosities and/or large granule Reynolds numbers. A correlation of Darcy-Forchheimer drag is proposed for 0.2146 less than or equal to epsilon less than or equal to 1 and 0 less than or equal to R-d less than or equal to 50. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.