SIMULATION OF COUPLED VISCOUS AND POROUS FLOW PROBLEMS

Theoretical and numerical formulations are presented for the conjugate problem involving incompressible flow and flow in a saturated porous medium. The major focus of the work is the development of a generally applicable finite element method for the simulation of both fixed inte rface and evolving porous interface problems. The available alternativ es for coupling Darcy and non-Darcy models to the Navier-Stokes equati ons have been studied and evaluated in a mixed finite element framewor k. Questions regarding convergence of the finite element method for po rous flow models have been addressed. Numerical experiments on simple flow geometries have revealed the shortcomings of both the Darcy and B rinkman models. Application of the more realistic models to practical, multidimensional, flow studies has also been demonstrated.