The Effect of Void Structure on the Permeability of Fibrous Networks

Antti Koponen*, Axel Ekman, Keijo Mattila, Ahmad M. Al-Qararah, Jussi Timonen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    21 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A Kozeny–Carman-based model of permeability for fibrous networks is proposed: the original model is extended by incorporating information about the local structure of the void space. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how in practice this added structural information can be retrieved from a three-dimensional digital image of a fibrous material. The proposed model is then validated for both foam- and water-deposited laboratory sheets of bleached kraft pulp (Scots pine) and chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp (CTMP, Norway spruce). The validation is carried out by comparing the model predictions against computationally determined permeability values. The related fluid-flow simulations are executed using the lattice-Boltzmann method together with high-resolution X-ray microtomography images. For both pulp materials, the sample sets had nearly equal porosities, but deviated substantially in their permeabilities. The proposed model was shown to improve prediction of permeability for the fibrous materials considered: the deviation between the predicted and computationally determined values was no more than 8%.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)247-259
    JournalTransport in Porous Media
    Volume117
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2017
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    This work was financially supported by the Academy of Finland (Project “Fibre-laden foams”), European Regional Development Funds (Project No. A31918), and the VTT Graduate School (A. A.-Q.). We acknowledge the financial support from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme NMP.2013.1.4-1 under Grant Agreement No. 604005.

    Keywords

    • fibrous porous media
    • permeability
    • Kozeny-Carman equation
    • pore structure
    • Lattice-Boltzmann
    • X-ray tomography

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The Effect of Void Structure on the Permeability of Fibrous Networks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this