Numerical investigation of the effect of porous blockage on fluid velocity and pressure using OpenFOAM

The Linux-based, open-source computational fluid dynamics tool OpenFOAM investigates how porous blockages influence fluid velocity and pressure. It solves fluid flow problems using the popular numerical method known as the finite volume method. The entire simulation process took place in three phases: pre-processing, running the simulation, and post-processing. The tools employed for these stages included Visual Studio Code for pre-processing, OpenFOAM for the core simulations, and ParaView for post-processing and visualization. The differences in velocity and pressure are analyzed as the fluid passes through porous media in this study. Additionally, statistical analysis of the simulation data is performed to reinforce the findings. The Darcy–Forchheimer equation is a well-established model for resistance in porous media used in the simulations. The findings demonstrate how porous obstructions significantly affect fluid dynamics by causing discernible variations in pressure and velocity. The simulation also demonstrated that OpenFOAM can effectively handle transient flow problems, which is also a part of this study. For the simulation, a fluid with a kinetic viscosity of 5 × 10−3 m2/s (motor oil at cold temperature) and a porous blockage with a Darcy coefficient of 500, a porosity of 0.9, and a permeability of 0.002 have been taken. Subsequently, the variation in fluid momentum due to time and horizontal distance was examined.