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Basak, Raunak

University of British Columbia

Porous deformable materials are ubiquitous in nature. Fluid flow through any deformable porous medium cause deformation of the medium and in turn, this deformation affects the fluid flow and such materials are poro-elastic. Flow through deformable porous media is relevant to applications such as soil consolidation, CO₂ sequestration, infiltration and transport processes in human tissue including for drug delivery. This work aims to investigate certain aspects of such flow using a purposely designed artificial deformable porous medium (matrix). The matrix is made with polydimethylsiloxane using the solvent casting and particulate leaching technique. This method helps control parameters like pore size, porosity, and stiffness of the matrix. The permeability of several samples is measured as a function of strain. The flow experimental setup comprises a tightly sealed chamber and a mechanism to strain the porous matrix and the pressure difference and the resultant flow rate through the matrix are measured. This gives us the hydraulic resistance which when combined with Darcy’s Law helps to calculate the associated permeability. As the externally applied compressive strain on the matrix increases, the permeability of the matrix decreases. We derive strain-permeability and porosity-permeability relationships from the measurements for comparison with existing models, and we observe that the matrix permeability varies exponentially with strain and porosity. A similar setup also permits the observation of flow-induced deformation of the matrix as a function of driving pressure and fluid viscosity. As the fluid flow takes place through the matrix, a camera captures seed particles present on the outside of the deforming porous matrix during the flow process and the fluid induced deformation and strain profile is visualized using Digital Image Correlation. We observe a non-uniform deformation/strain profile. The flow resistance of the deformed matrix is calculated using the previously derived strain-permeability relationship and it differs only slightly from the measured resistance value.

Text

2023-11-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86663

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/