The investigation of the particle shape effect on the permeability of porous media through lattice Boltzmann simulation and experimental study

In this paper, the influence of particle shape on the permeability of porous media is investigated through the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The accuracy of LBM is verified by comparing the theoretical solutions and the numerical results of face -centered cubic (FCC) arrays of spheres. The porous media consisting of ellipsoidal particles with different aspect ratios was generated by the Discrete Element Method (DEM), and the aspect ratio a/c and the shape parameter psi (ratio of sphericity to roundness) is introduced to quantify the particle shape. After that, the fluid flow in porous media of arbitrary particle shapes is numerically studied by LBM, based on which, the effects of porosity, tortuosity, and particle shape on the permeability characteristics of porous media are analyzed. It is found that the porosity function n3/(1 -n)2 and tortuosity function showed a highly linear correlation with permeability, and the shape parameter psi is more suitable for expressing the shape correction coefficient CF. On this basis, the equation based on the classic Kozeny-Carman (K-C) equation is developed to predict the permeability of porous media involving the particle shape effect. To verify the accuracy of the equations, the constant head test is conducted for porous media samples with regular arrangements of ellipsoidal particles produced by the 3D printing technique. The experimental results show that the prediction results of the prediction equation in this paper are closer to the experimental results and have higher accuracy compared with the other empirical equations.