Numerical Study on Film Foam Flow Characteristics in a Straight Duct

摘要

Straight ducts capture some essential features of the motion of foam in porous media in petroleum industry. In this paper, Surface Evolver was employed to build the mathematical model to study the flow behavior of lamellas in the duct with different models. Numerical results show good agreement with experiments and some important features of lamella flow behavior in straight ducts are obtained. It is concluded that, the physical model with viscous force can adequately describe the flow characteristics of reality foam in the experiment. The actual pressure difference consists of the pressure difference caused by the curvature of the lamellas and the drag force on the boundary wall. Under the ideal condition of without drag force along the wall, the pressure drop for lamella flow in the duct is zero, and the shape and the velocity of the lamellas will maintain constant.