Author(s)

E. du Plessis & S. Woudberg

Abstract

An existing pore-scale model is used to predict the effective diffusivity of staggered two-dimensional rectangular unconsolidated arrays through the use of a Representative Unit Cell concept. A tri-diagonal matrix algorithm is used to solve the diffusive flux field and to compute the effective diffusion coefficient for concentration gradients of staggered arrays. The numerical results and analytical model are compared critically with theoretical and numerical studies, as well as experimental data reported in literature. The good correlations obtained for the effective diffusivity provide confidence in both the computational and analytical work. Keywords: diffusion, porous media, pore-scale, effective diffusion coefficient, modelling, microstructure, fibres.

Keywords

diffusion, porous media, pore-scale, effective diffusion coefficient, modelling, microstructure, fibres