Predictive modelling of flow through porous microstructures

Micro-structurally faithful CFD models of materials with porous architectures can be created directly from three dimensional X-ray microtomography scans. These CFD models are typically very large and therefore require high performance computing facilities to solve the resulting system of equations. This paper presents results for a time dependent, low Reynolds number flow simulation through a volume of aluminum foam. Future work will use predictive modelling to help design new porous micro-architectures for specific application areas.