A realistic approach for modeling permeability of fibrous media: 3-D imaging coupled with CFD simulation

Determining permeability of fibrous media is of great importance to many industries. While there are several 2-D and 3-D analytical models developed for predicting the permeability of fibrous disordered media, there are not many numerical works that compare the predictions of these models with that of real media. In this work, we present a series of numerical simulations performed on the microstructure of a real fibrous media. An efficient procedure is presented for reconstructing 3-D images from the 2-D images of the real fibrous media and processing them for the purpose of performing fluid flow simulation. Digital volumetric imaging (DVI) of a typical hydroentangled fibrous fabric is obtained, as an example, and its permeability is computed. These results are compared with those obtained from the analytical equations given in the literature. In particular, it was found that permeability of a typical hydroentangled material can be closely predicted by the layered anisotropic models. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.