LAMINAR, TURBULENT, AND TRANSITION FLOW IN POROUS

SINTERED MEDIA
A n t o n i o Lorenzi ~

S O M M A R I O : Si preseulano i risullali di una ricerca speri- TABLE I

meotale sul moto di filtrazione in regime laminare, di /ransizione CHARACTERISTICS OF POROUS MEDIA
e lurbolento attraverso filtri metallici di bronzo sinterizzato. AND TEST CONDITIONS
Assmnendo la radice quadrata della permeabilith quale di-
mensione caralteristica degli elemenli porosi, tutti i risultali ot- &
Filter S D L Fluid
t e m # i - sperimentaudo sia cou aria che cou a c q u a - veugouo
corre/ati iu funzione del fattore di attrito e del numero di Re3,-
holds, con un unico valore de/la costante caratteristica dei mezzi
porosi. pm mm m/n Itm

S U M M A R Y : The results of an experimental research on lam-

inar, transition and turbulent flow through sintered bronze me- a 18 10 4 110 Air
tallic filters are here reported. b 18 15 4 110 Air
¢ 30 15 220 Air-Water
Assuming the square root of the permeabili O, as characteristic d 30 20 220 Water
dimension of the porous media, all the experimental results e 30 15 5 220 Air
- - obtained either with air or with water as working f l u i d - f 30 20 5 220 Air
are presented on a plot of the friction factor versus the Reynolds g 30 10 10 220 Air
b 30 15 10 220 Air
number. 220
i 30 20 10 Air
A unique value of the characterist# c~stant allows a good 1 50 15 4 390 Water
fit for both fluids. m 70 20 6 420 Water
n 90 20 6 500 Water

1. Introduction.
known, such a relationship - - applied for laminar and
turbulent flow in permeable m a t e r i a l s - may be expressed
This-paper deals with the results of an experimental
as the sum of a linear and of a quadratic term, both related
investigation on laminar and turbulent flow through metal-
to the mean filter velocity: the experimental results have
lic filters. These filters are made of small disks of sintered
pointed out that, in the range of Reynolds numbers here
bronze introduced in supporting diaphgrams of the same
investigated, the dimensionless coefficient appearing in
thickness, located in the flow area by means of flanges.
the quadratic term has about the same value for both
In order to cover a wide range of flow rates and pres-
working fluids, water and air.
sure drops, porous elements have been utilized with
Finally, according to the above mentioned Authors,
various thicknesses L, different filtration characteristics
use was made of the square root of the viscous permeability
(specifically: filtration threshold 5")and diameters D.
as characteristic length in the Reynolds number and friction
Table 1 lists such characteristics and the dimensions of the
factor for porous media.
tested porous media: in such a table, the values of the
average diameter d, of the particles (nearly of spherical
shape) constituting the porous media are also reported
2. Experimental results and discussion.
[q.
The experimental results are utilized in order to verify
The tests have been performed with dried and filtered
for liquids and to apply to gases, the relationship between
air and filtered tap water (see Table 1) in a 20mm I.D. duct.
the Fanning friction factor and Reynolds number for po-
As it is well-known, in the laminar flow through porous
rous media as an extension of Darcy's law [2]; this rela-
media the a.'dal pressure gradient A p / A x ( x = axial coor-
tionship, already developed in the work of Ward [3] and
dinate) is given in terms of the mean filter velocity V
more recently of Beavers and Sparrow [4], [5], Schwartz
(defined as the ratio between the fluid volumetric flow
and Probstein [6], was experimentally verified by these
rate Q and the cross-sectional area A of the porous element)
Authors using only water as working fluid. As it is well-
by means of the Darcy's law [2]:
........
1 lstituto di Fisica Tecnica e lmpianti Termotecnici delia Ap t~V
universit~ degli Studi di Genova, Facolt& di Ingegneria.
A---~ = ~ (1)

JUNE 1975 75
where k is the permeability coefficient of the material
100
and /~ the viscosity of the flowing fluid.
If the fluid is a liquid, the velocity V is constant along
the length of the porous element; in the case of gases,
as it is well-known, V changes with that length, owing
to the expansion of the gas. In this case, for isothermal
flow of an ideal gas, the Darcy's law can be written in the
form [2], [7 through 11]:
Ap _ tt
A x ----A-" A (1')
so that the mean filter velocity is now defined referring
to the volumetric flow rate Q as evaluated at the mean
pressure fi = (pl q-ps)/2 through the material (pl and p2
respectively upstream and downstream pressure).
For nonlaminar flows, equations (1) and (1') are gen-
erally replaced by the Forchheimer relationship [3 through
6], [12] written, in order to agree with the linear Darcy's
law at very low velocities, in the following form:
Ap _ t z V coV2
Ax te + kll-~ (2)
where Q is the density of the fluid and c is a dimensionless
coefficient, constant for a given porous medium.
Equation (2) allows an interesting representation of the
experimental results. For such a purpose, following Har-
leman [13] and Ward [3], and according to the most recent
works on the subject [5], the square root of~he permeability
k is employed as the characteristic dimension of the porous
media. It is possible, in this way, to define a dimensionless
friction factor for porous media, in the form [3]:
f, dp k 112
(3)
Ax V=o
and, also, a permeability Reynolds number [13]:
V k t/2 p
R ~ = - - (4)
so that equation (2) becomes:
1
f~ = ~ +, (5)
The results of the measurements obtained in all the
experimental runs performed with air and with water as
working fluid (see Table 1), are presented in Fig. 1, where
the values of the friction factor are plotted versus Reynolds
number. For each filter, the permeability coefficient has
been evaluated by means of Darcy's law [2 through 12],
[14]. For a better understanding of the figure, not all
the experimental points have been reported: many of them
either coincided or were very close to points already
plotted.
By inspection of the figure, three zones can be distin-
guished according to small, medium and high values of
Reynolds number. In the zone corresponding to the lower
values of Re, that is minor than 0.1 and where the flow
76
. . . . . . . . . . .
v TESTS WITH AIR
10
580
,
31 0.1 I Rk I0 100
Fig. 1 - Friction factor fx versus Reynolds number R~-.
is certainly laminar, according to eqs. (1), (3), and (4),
the friction factor varies inversely with the Reynolds
number itself, following the linear inverse relationship:
1
f~ = R~ (6)
For Reynolds numbers ranging between 0.1 and about 1,
where inertial forces become more and more important
with respect to the viscous forces, the experimental points
show a gradual departure from linearity: this is the tran-
sition flow region. Finally, for Reynolds numbers larger
than 1, the flow is approaching a fully turbulent condition
and the results fall close to a curve which, t'or higher
R~, tends asymptotically to become a straight line parallel
to the horizontal axis.
As already pointed out, equation (5) may be used for
correlating the results in the whole range of the Reynolds
number here investigated. The value of the constant c,
which best correlates the experimental results, turns out
to be 0 . 5 8 0 - as already mentioned in a previous note
referring to tests with water only [15]--therefore, equation
(5) becomes:
1
f~ = ~ + 0.580 (5')
At this stage, it is worth noticing that other Authors
[4], [5], [6], [16] have also found values of ¢ different
from that one (0.550) proposed by Ward [3] as a universal
constant for all porous media. In particular, Irmay [17],
and, very recently, Beavers et alt. [5] have emphasized,
among other things, that the value of c depends on the
particles' shape and packing, that is on the kind of wakes
generated downstream of the particles constituting the
porous medium.
As a conclusion, the author wishes to emphasize the
excellent agreement between the experimental results ob-
tained with air and with water, and, significantly, the
good fit of both of them with equation (5): this equation
is satisfied, with the same value of the characteristic con-
stant for both fluids, in the whole range of the Reynolds
number here investigated.
MECCANICA
 It appears furthermore that relationship (2), rewritten
in the form:
dp /~V ~V~
Ax . . . . . k + 0.580 k~-" (2')
LIST OF SYMBOLS
A cross-sectional area of porous element;
C dimensionless coefficient;
D diameter of porous element;
d. mean particle diameter;
f~ dimensionless friction factor for porous media;
k permeability of porous element;
L thickness of porous element;
Ap/Ax axial pressure gradient;
pl upstream pressure;
REFERENCES
1 A. G'ALLO,and G. F. BoccmNi, I divsrsi aspetti della per-
meabitith dei materiali sinterizzati- Parte II1: i flltri a grant
sferici, a porosith controllata, Ingegneria 2]'Ieccanica, anno x ~ I I ,
apriIc 1974, pp. 13-20.
2 ~{. MUSKAT, The flow of homogeneonsfluids through porous media,
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1937.
3 J. C. WARO, Turbulent flow in porous media, Jl. of Hydraulics
Division, Proceedingsof the American Society of Civil Engineers,
vol. 90, HY5, 1964, pp. 1-12.
4 CG. S. BEAVERS, and E. A.[. SPARROW, Aron-Dar O, flow
through fibrom porous media, Jl. of Applied A,Iechanics, vol. 36,
No. 4 Trans. ASME, vol. 91, Series E, 1969, pp. 711-714,
5 G. S. BEAVERS, E. ~J[. SPARROW, D. E. RODENZ, Inflne//ce
of bed size on the characteristics aM porosity of randomly packed
beds of spheres, J1, of Applied A4echanics, Trans, ASME,
Sept. 1973, pp. 655-660.
6 J. SCHWARTZ, and R. F. PttOBSXEXN, Experimental s/ttdy
of slnrry separatorsfor use in desalination, Desalination, vol. 6,
1969, pp. 239-266.
7 P. C. CARMAN, L'icoulement des gaz h /ravers les milieux
poreux, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1961.
8 W. H. CRUMER, T. DAVZES, Chemical E/L~ineering practice,
vol. 2, Butterworths Scientific Publications, London 1956.
9 V. I. ARAVZN, and S. N. Nu.~msOV, Theory of fluid flow
JUNE 1975
can be used to evaluate the permeability k o f the sintered
metal filters here investigated, independently o f the flow
regime. Practically, it becomes possible to characterize
the porous media with no need o f tests to be performed
in a stricdy laminar flow regime.
Received 15 January 1975
downstream pressure;
(pl +p2)/2 mean pressure;
Q volumetric flow rate;
volumetric flow rate at mean pressure
Re Reynolds number for porous media;
S filtration threshold of porous element;
V mean filter velocity;
x axial coordinate;
absolute viscosity ;
density.
in nndeformable porous media, Israel Program for Scientific
Translation, Jerusalem, 1965.
10 W . T . JOHNSON,D. B. TALIAFERRO,Flow of air and na/nral
gas through porous media, United States Depar/ment of the
Interior, Bureau of Alines, Technical Paper 592, 1938.
11 V. T. MORGAN, Permeability of porous metals, Symposium
sur la M~tallurgie des poudres, Paris 1964.
12 R. J. M. DE WIEST, Flow through porous media, Academic
Press, New York and London, 1969.
13 D. F. HARLEMAN, P. F. AIEI'ILIqORN, arid R. R. RUMER,
Dispersion-permeability correlation in porous media, Jl. of
Hydraulics Division, Proceedings of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, vol. 89, HY2, 1963, pp. 67-85.
14 BRITISrl STANOARO,1752: 1963, Specification for laboratory
sintered or frittedfllters, British Standards Institution, Lon-
don, 1963.
15 A. LORENZI, and A. TRUCCO MARTINENGO, Snll'impiego
ditm misnratore di portata, di tipo lineare, per liquidi, Pub-
blicazioni dell'Istituto di Fisica Teenier e Impianti Ter-
motecnici, Crenova, FTP-19, 1974.
16 E. Co-. W. LINDQtJlST, Formal discussion of reference [3], J1.
of Hydraulics Division, Proceedings of the American Society
of Civil Engineers, Vol. 91, HY3, 1965, pp. 325-330.
17 S. IRXtAY, On the tbeoretical derivation of Darcy and Forch-
beimer formulas, Transaction, American Geophysical Union,
vol. 39, 1958, pp. 702-707.
77