Computational time and domain size analysis of porous media flows using the lattice Boltzmann method

The purpose of this study is to investigate the computational time required to describe the fluid flow behavior through a porous medium and its relation to the corresponding domain size. The fluid flow behavior is recovered using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The selected methodology has been applied because of its feasibility for mimicking the fluid flow behavior in complex geometries and moving boundaries. In this study, three different porosities are selected to calculate, for several sizes domain, the required computational time to reach the steady state. Two different cases are implemented: (1) increasing the transversal area, but keeping the layer thickness as a constant, and (2) increasing the total volume of the pore domain by increasing all the dimensions of the volume equally. The porous media are digitally generated by placing the solid obstacles randomly, but uniformly distributed in the whole domain. Several relationships relating the computational time, domain size and porosity are proposed. Additionally, an expression that relates the hydraulic tortuosity to the porosity is proposed.