Buoyancy- and pressure-driven motion in a vertical porous layer: Effects of quadratic drag

The seepage velocity arising from pressure and buoyancy driving forces in a slender vertical layer of fluid-saturated porous media is considered. Quadratic drag (Forcheimer effects) and Brinkman viscous forces are included in the analysis. Parameters are identified which characterize the influence of matrix permeability, quadratic drag and buoyancy. An explicit solution is obtained for pressure-driven flow which illustrates the influence of quadratic drag and the strong boundary layer behavior expected for low permeability media. The experimental data of Givler and Altobelli [2] for water seepage through a high porosity foam is found to yield good agreement with the present analysis. For the case of buoyancy-driven how, a uniformly valid approximate solution is found for low permeability media. Comparison with the pressure-driven case shows strong similarities in the near-wall region.