Simulation of Fluid Flow through Porous Media Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method

A numerical model for simulating fluid flow through deformable porous media using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is developed and presented in this paper. Mass and momentum conservation principles that govern the fluid flow are implemented into the SPH framework. In the developed model, saturated porous media is treated as a two-phase material consisting of interpenetrating solid and fluid phases, each of which is treated as a continuum. The motion of each phase is governed by Newton's second law and the motions are coupled through fluid pressure gradient and viscous drag force that is evaluated based on empirical equations. The computed relationship between the hydraulic gradient and discharge velocity is compared with published numerical and experimental results of hydraulic conductivity tests and excellent agreement is observed.