Numerical Study on Force Mechanisms and Eddy Current Effect of Rayleigh–Taylor Instability in the Intrinsic Model of Activated Carbon

In industrial operations, fluid transport within activated carbon—as one kind of porous media—often involves nonlinear instabilities, notably Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI). Herein it has been investigated for the flows in its intrinsic model to analyze the generation of adverse factors in practical applications. By studying the mechanism of force influence, it can explore how porous medium parameters impact RTI dynamics. The results show that horizontal forces dominate RTI’s initial evolution, with porosity influencing peak flow velocity timing delays (0% to 22.39% delay). The varying pore scales, delays peak velocity timing (7.63% to 1.46% delay) during initial stages, converging at later stages. Notably, the vortex line rupture at ε = 0.999 triggers Taylor vortex formation, enhancing velocity by 9.8816 times and promoting bidirectional mass transfer. This study enhances understanding of mass transfer efficiency of catalyst in industrial applications, enabling tailored porous media designs for optimized heat and mass transfer.