A model based on the Lattice Boltzmann method is developed to study the flow of reactive electro-kinetic fluids in porous media. The momentum, concentration and electric/potential fields are simulated via the Navier–Stokes, advection–diffusion/Nernst–Planck and Poisson equations, respectively. With this model, the total density and velocity fields, the concentration of reactants and reaction products, including neutral and ionized species, the electric potential and the interaction forces between the fields can be studied, and thus we provide an insight into the interplay between chemistry, flow and the geometry of the porous medium. The results show that the conversion efficiency of the reaction can be strongly influenced by the fluid velocity, reactant concentration and by porosity of the porous medium. The fluid velocity determines how long the reactants stay in the reaction areas, the reactant concentration controls the amount of the reaction material and with different dielectric constant, the porous medium can distort the electric field differently. All these factors make the reaction conversion efficiency display a non-trivial and non-monotonic behaviour as a function of the flow and reaction parameters. To better illustrate the dependence of the reaction conversion efficiency on the control parameters, based on the input from a number of numerical investigations, we developed a phenomenological model of the reactor. This model is capable of capturing the main features of the causal relationship between the performance of the reactor and the main test parameters. Using this model, one could optimize the choice of reaction and flow parameters in order to improve the performance of the reactor and achieve higher production rates.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Progress in mesoscale methods for fluid dynamics simulation’.

开发了一个基于格子 Boltzmann 方法的模型来研究多孔介质中反应性电动流体的流动。动量、浓度和电场/势场分别通过纳维-斯托克斯方程、对流-扩散/能斯特-普朗克方程和泊松方程进行模拟。使用该模型，可以研究总密度和速度场、反应物和反应产物的浓度，包括中性和电离物种、电势和场之间的相互作用力，因此我们可以深入了解化学之间的相互作用，流动和多孔介质的几何形状。结果表明，反应的转化效率受流体速度、反应物浓度和多孔介质孔隙率的影响很大。流体速度决定了反应物在反应区停留的时间，反应物浓度控制了反应材料的量，不同的介电常数，多孔介质可以不同地扭曲电场。所有这些因素使反应转化效率显示出作为流量和反应参数的函数的重要且非单调的行为。为了更好地说明反应转化效率对控制参数的依赖性，基于大量数值研究的输入，我们开发了反应器的现象学模型。该模型能够捕捉反应堆性能与主要测试参数之间因果关系的主要特征。使用这个模型，

本文是主题问题“流体动力学模拟中尺度方法的进展”的一部分。