Validation and calibration of coupled porous-medium and free-flow problems using pore-scale resolved models

Abstract

The correct choice of interface conditions and effective parameters for coupled macroscale free-flow and porous-medium models is crucial for a complete mathematical description of the problem under consideration and for accurate numerical simulation of applications. We consider single-fluid-phase systems described by the Stokes–Darcy model. Different sets of coupling conditions for this model are available. However, the choice of these conditions and effective model parameters is often arbitrary. We use large-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations to validate coupling conditions by comparison of the macroscale simulations against pore-scale resolved models. We analyse three settings (lid-driven cavity over a porous bed, infiltration problem and general filtration problem) with different geometrical configurations (channelised and staggered distributions of solid grains) and different sets of interface conditions. Effective parameters for the macroscale models (permeability tensor, boundary layer constants) are computed numerically for each geometrical configuration. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the sensitivity of the coupled Stokes–Darcy problem to the location of the sharp fluid–porous interface, the effective model parameters and the interface conditions.