Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200
DOI 10.1007/s10404-011-0862-x
RESEARCH PAPER
Optical measurement of pore scale velocity field
inside microporous media
Debjyoti Sen • David S. Nobes • Sushanta K. Mitra
Received: 2 May 2011 / Accepted: 25 July 2011 / Published online: 9 August 2011
Ó Springer-Verlag 2011
Abstract An experimental technique to quantify velocity
field at pore scale with in microporous media, formed by
packing of microglass spheres of size 200 lm inside a glass
micro-model, is presented. A microparticle image veloci-
metry (l-PIV) system is used to study velocity fields at
four different spatial regions in the microporous medium.
A combined particle image velocimetry (PIV) and particle
tracking velocimetry (PTV) scheme is used to quantify
velocity within a typical pore size of 10–50 lm. The
experiments are conducted at four different flow rates. Two
different measurement planes are selected for obtaining the
detailed pore scale velocity field—one close to the glass
wall and the other inside the porous medium at a distance
100 lm below the glass wall. The image processing tech-
nique for dealing with noisy data and sparse vector field
has been discussed in detail. Probability density functions
of transverse and axial velocity components are compared
with available results in literature. The pore scale velocity
field obtained can provide insight to flow properties in
microporous media and can be a powerful tool to validate
existing numerical results for flow through porous media.
Keywords Micro-PIV  Microporous media  Pore scale 
Velocity field  Image processing
1 Introduction
The phenomenon of flow through porous media has
applications in oil extraction from reservoirs, packed bed
D. Sen  D. S. Nobes  S. K. Mitra (&)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, AB, Canada
e-mail: sushanta.mitra@ualberta.ca
regenerators, packed bed micro-reactors, fuel cells, elec-
tronic equipment cooling, and biomedical devices (Vafai
2005, 2010; Sahimi 1995; Neild and Bejan 2006; Pattekar
and Kothare 2005). To understand, develop, and optimize
processes involved in these applications, one needs to
characterize the transport processes in microporous media.
Multiphase transport in microporous media has direct
bearings in secondary and tertiary oil recovery processes
from porous reservoirs (Sahimi 1995). Recent trends sug-
gest that transport in pore-scale is becoming an important
issue for energy applications (Berejnov et al. 2008).
Scaled down replica of oil reservoirs have been used for
laboratory experiments to predict efficiency of oil recovery
processes. A common practice is to replicate the porous
media by creating a micro-model of packed sand or glass
beads inside a flow cell and to study transport processes by
flow visualization techniques (Dawe et al. 1992; Turta
et al. 2003). Santosh et al. (2007) used similar flow visu-
alization technique to determine waterflood profiles during
oil recovery for horizontal and vertical well configurations.
They used packed bed of white sand of size 400–600 lm
inside a transparent core holder and a two-dimensional
study was conducted. The study provided important
information about waterflood profiles and it verified two-
dimensional numerical models. Hatiboglu and Babadagli
(2008) also conducted similar flow visualization experi-
ments using 100 lm transparent glass beads and some of
the important properties of spontaneous imbibition and
wetting phase flow were captured. Flow visualization
experiments are based on area averaged tracers and these
experiments can at most provide qualitative velocity fields.
Qualitative results can provide information about the
velocity profile and are useful in studying some of the flow
properties within microporous media. Quantitative mea-
surement of velocity field can provide a detailed
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understanding of transport processes in porous media and
can be used for verification of available analytical and
numerical results. Microparticle image velocimetry (l-
PIV) is an optical measurement technique which is used to
quantify velocity field for microscale flows (Santiago et al.
1998; Lindken et al. 2009). Although l-PIV technique has
been used for many applications on microscale flows,
probing flow within a complex porous geometry is exper-
imentally difficult to achieve (Lee and Kim 2009). Perrin
et al. (2005) studied flow properties within a microcapil-
lary pore using l-PIV technique. They have quantified the
velocity field within the microcapillary pore of 40 lm size.
Their work elucidated that l-PIV can be used to quantify
pore scale velocity where pore size is in the order of
40 lm.
Evidence of flow measurement through ‘‘macro’’ porous
media with complex geometry, such as porous media
formed by packed glass beads, is available in literature.
Laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) was one of the early
techniques used to measure interstitial velocity with in a
macroporous media. LDV is a non-intrusive single point
measurement technique and each point in the field of view
needs to be probed to get an estimate of pore scale velocity
field. Johnston et al. (1975) used LDV technique to study
velocity field inside porous media formed by packing of
plexi glass spheres of diameter 1.27 cm. However, LDV is
a single point measurement system and it is difficult to
capture the spatial and temporal variations of velocity field
inside the porous media. PIV was extensively used to
measure velocity profile within macroporous media.
Nuclear magnetic resonance is another non-intrusive flow
measurement technique used for probing velocity field with
in porous media (Lebon et al. 1996). Northrup et al. (1993)
used fluorescent particle image velocimetry technique to
measure two-dimensional velocity fields inside a porous
media formed by packing of PMMA beads of size 10 mm
inside a cylindrical container. Particle tracking velocimetry
(PTV) has also been used by researchers to quantify pore
scale velocity field inside macroporous media (Peurrung
et al. 1995; Moroni and Cushman 2001; Huang et al.
2008). Moroni and Cushman (2001) and Huang et al.
(2008) used statistical methods to compare their experi-
mental velocity field with data available from literature.
Numerical models have been developed in the literature
which can quantify flow velocity in both macro- and micro-
porous media. Lattice Boltzmann simulation has become
one of the popular tools to quantify flow through packed
bed of spheres. Maier et al. (1998), Hill et al. (2001), Van
der Hoef et al. (2005) used Lattice Boltzmann simulations
to study flow through porous media formed by packing of
spheres. The length scale for these studies is typically in
the order of millimeters and it can be considered to be
macroscale study. Xu and Jiang (2008), Zaman and Jalali
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Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200
(2010) used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique
to model flow through microporous media. They used
commercial software to quantify interstitial velocity field
inside microporous media formed by packed bed of
spheres. The velocity fields were used to determine the
hydraulic permeability and the results were compared with
analytical results. Akanji and Matthai (2010) highlighted
the need to study pore scale flow in microporous media and
they have used finite element method to successfully
compute the velocity field within a micropore of size
around 10 lm. Numerical works have contributed signifi-
cantly in understanding flow through porous media in both
macro- and micro-scale. Existing literature provide evi-
dence of validation of numerical works for macro-porous
media, however, experimental validation of pore scale flow
in microporous media is still lacking.
In the present work a l-PIV system is used to measure
pore scale velocity field within microporous media. The
porous media is formed by packing of microspheres of size
200 lm in a flow cell. A detailed investigation of pore
scale flow at microlevel is done at different spatial loca-
tions to obtain the two-dimensional two component (2D2C)
velocity field. Flow rates ranging from 40 to 100 ll/min in
steps of 20 ll/min were used for the study. A hybrid PIV
and PTV scheme was used to obtain the velocity field. The
velocity obtained at different locations and different planes
are compared. The transverse and longitudinal velocity
fields are studied using probability density function. The
effect of increasing Reynolds number on the velocity trails
is studied. A comparison was carried out between the
obtained velocity profile for microporous media with the
existing data available for study macro-porous media.
2 Pore scale flow
A brief summary of work done by different researchers on
flow through porous media formed by packing of spheres is
given in Table 1.The diameter of the spheres is denoted by
 and
dp, the average pore scale flow velocity is given by jVj
Reynolds number is denoted by Rep. Reynolds number is
calculated based on the particle diameter dp and the mean
 as
velocity jVj;

dp qjVj
Rep ¼ ð1Þ
l
where q is the density of the fluid and l is the viscosity of
the fluid. The Reynolds number gives an idea of the flow
regime in which each of the study was conducted.
Pore scale flow at microscale has been studied qualita-
tively using flow visualization techniques. In most of the
cases a dye is injected in the liquid and propagation of the
dye is observed to get a qualitative idea of the flow field.
Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200
Table 1 A table summarizing the key experimental and numerical studies for velocity field in porous media
Author, year dp |V| (lm/s)
(mm)
Saleh et al. (1992) 10 25–2500
Northrup et al. (1993) 10 50
Maier et al. (1998) 6 130–1200
Hill et al. (2001) 9 300–3000
Hassan and Dominguez-Ontiveros 5 100-1.25 9 10-4
(2008)
Moroni and Cushman (2001) 19 0.2–0.6
5
Huang et al. (2008) 7 1.5 9 10
Zaman and Jalali (2010) 0.2–1 4 8 9 10-4 - 4 9 10-3
Current work 0.2 117–246
However, a detailed understanding of pore scale flow
requires a quantitative approach. In the present work a
detailed quantitative study of the velocity field is conducted
within a microporous media using a l-PIV set up and the
results obtained from these experimental study is compared
with existing numerical and experimental work.
3 Experimental setup
A flow cell is designed using commercial designing soft-
ware (Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp, Solidworks
2009) and is manufactured using a rapid prototype (Objet,
Eden 350) technique (Sen et al. 2010). A sectional view of
the flow cell is shown in Fig. 1b. An acrylic based photo
polymer (Fullcure, 720) is used as the substrate material to
manufacture the body of the flow cell. The rapid prototype
technique involves manufacturing the cell in layers of
16 lm. The internal channel dimension for each channel is
14.5 9 4.5 9 4.5 mm3. Two standard microscopic glass
slides (Fisher Scientific, 12-550 A) are used as viewing
windows for each channel. A glass slide is glued perma-
nently to the rear side of the channel and the channel is
packed with microspheres of 200 lm diameter (Corpus-
cular, 0200). Filters with a 20 lm pore size are inserted
into the filter slit to hold the glass beads inside the channel
while allowing the fluorescent tracing particles (Thermo
scientific, R0200) of 2 lm size to flow through the filters.
The other glass slide tightly seats on a O-ring (Technoseal,
31) and ensures no leakage from the channel. Commercial
fittings (Swagelok) with tubing of 1.6 mm diameter are
used at the inlet and the outlet of the flow cell. The fluo-
rescent tracing particles are available in a liquid suspension
from the manufacturer and 0.2 ml of solution is added to
20 ml of de-ionized water to prepare the working fluid. The
flow is driven by a syringe pump (Harvard Apparatus, PHD
191
Rep Remarks
0.0025–0.25 Macroscale study of porous media using PIV
0.005 Macroscale study of porous media using FPIV
0.78–7.2 Numerical study using lattice Boltzmann
simulation
2.7–27 Numerical study using lattice Boltzmann
0.5–500 Macroscale study, match refractive index,
PIV is used
0.05–0.13 Macroscale, PTV is used
28 Macroscale study, packed bed in a glass column,
PIV is used
Microscale, numerical study using CFD
0.02–0.05 Microscale study, l-PIV system is used
(c)
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 a A schematic of the l-PIV setup. b A section view of a
channel in the flow cell. c The porous medium formed by 200 lm
glass sphere is shown. R1, R2, R3, and R4 are the different regions in
the porous medium. The velocity field is observed in each of this
region using a 10x objective. The size of each region is
800 lm 9 600 lm
2000) which can control the flow rate precisely and
experiments were conducted at different flow rates ranging
from 40 to 100 ll/min in steps of 20 ll/min.
The optical system consists of a l-PIV system and the
main components of the system is shown in Fig. 1a.
A Nd:YAG CW laser (Laser Glow, LRS 0532) is used for
illumination. A volume of the liquid seeded with fluores-
cent tracing particle is illuminated. An infinity corrected
objective (Olympus, Plan N 10x/0.25/FN22) is used to
focus the green light in the region of interest. The fluo-
rescent particles emit red light of 612 nm when excited
with the green laser of 532 nm. The emitted light from the
fluorescent particles passes through the objective, dichoric
mirror, and the red filter and reaches the CCD camera
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(Basler, Pioneer piA640-210gm). The camera receives only
the fluorescent signal because the remaining light origi-
nating from reflections of other surfaces gets filtered in the
dichoric mirror and the red filter. The position of the
fluorescent particles are captured at different time interval
with Dt = 0.005 s. The velocity of the particles can be
calculated since the displacement of the particles and time
interval between each image is known.
A 10x microscopic objective is used to get an optimum
field of view and resolution for the optical system. There is
always a tradeoff between field of view and optical reso-
lution of the system. With a higher magnification lens, the
optical resolution increases but the field of view decreases.
The diameter of the image of a fluorescent particle on the
CCD chip of the camera is given by,
"  #0:5
k 2 2 2
de ¼ 2:44ðM þ 1Þ þM dpf ð2Þ
2NA
where M is the magnification, dpf is the diameter of the
fluorescent particle, NA is the numerical aperture of the
objective, and k is the wavelength of the emitted light from
the fluorescent particle (Lindken et al. 2009). The diameter
of a 2 lm fluorescent particle projected on the CCD chip,
de, is 38.46 lm. The physical size of one pixel on the CCD
chip of the camera is 7.4 lm, hence the image of a fluo-
rescent particle is resolved over five pixels. This satisfies
the condition that an image of a particle should be resolved
at least over 2–3 pixels. Projecting back the image of the
particle on the flow field, the value of dMe ; is 3.846 lm. The
correlation peak can be determined within 1/10th of the
particle image diameter (Prasad et al. 1992). The diffrac-
tion limited resolution of the optical system is 386 nm.
Selection of tracing particles plays a key role in deter-
mining errors in micro-PIV measurement system (Lindken
et al. 2009). Measurement errors can occur when the tracer
particle does not follow the fluid faithfully. This can hap-
pen due to the Brownian motion of the particles (Santiago
et al. 1998). The error due to Brownian motion reduces
with increase of size of tracer particles. In this study, with
2 lm tracing particles, the error due to Brownian motion is
found to be less than 1% Lindken et al. (2009). The tracing
particles are neutrally buoyant, so they do not experience
any buoyant force. The response of a tracing particle to
change of fluid velocity depends on the response time of
the particle. The response time for the 2 lm tracing particle
is found to be 0.2 ls (Lindken et al. 2009). Since the
response time is less than the time scale of the flow, the
tracing particles can be assumed to flow faithfully with the
fluid.
The thickness of the focal plane for the present objective
is 8 lm. The objective is mounted on a peizo stage
(Piezosystem Jena Inc, PZ100). On applying electrical
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Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200
Fig. 2 A schematic showing the location of focal planes where
measurements are taken
signal to the piezo stage it is strained parallel to the z-axis
and the objective can move along the z-axis. The move-
ment of the piezo stage can be controlled accurately by
controlling the voltage which is done using custom soft-
ware (National Instruments, LabWindows CVI). The
maximum distance by which the peizo stage can traverse in
the z direction is 100 lm. Since the objective is mounted
on the piezo stage, the focal plane location of the lens
changes upon moving the peizo stage. The porous media is
scanned at different z plane location.
The packing of the glass sphere generates a porous
media with random packing. Four different regions, as
shown in Fig. 1c, are selected for the study which are
denoted by regions R1, R2, R3, and R4, respectively. Each
region has a unique pore structure and the pore scale
velocity field is studied in each of this region. Near wall
studies are conducted by carefully focusing the objective
close to the wall. A small mark was drawn on the bottom
surface of the glass slide and the focal plane is adjusted to
obtain a sharp focus on the mark. This ensures the focal
plane is on the inner glass surface and this position is
considered to be z = 0. The piezo stage is moved down so
that the objective focuses close to the wall, at z = 25 lm
plane. Upon fixing z position, the traversing stage is moved
to a region of interest in the x–y plane and experiments are
conducted at different inlet flow rates of 40, 60, 80, and
100 ll/min. The field of view with the current optical set-
up is 800 lm 9 600 lm. Figure 2 shows the schematic
representation of z planes used in the experiment. For the
same flow rate, the velocity field measurement are also
conducted at z = 100 lm plane.
4 Calibration
The images obtained from the camera are in pixel space.
This means that each particle image is spread over a few
pixels on the CCD camera chip. The conversion of pixel
Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200 193

space to real space is performed by calibrating the optical
system. A microcalibration target (Max Levy Autograph
Inc., Multipurpose Target) was used for this purpose. The
calibration target has regular grid pattern which are
100 lm wide and the line width is 5 lm. The resolution of
the target was within 1 lm. The calibration target is placed
in the same location as that of the flow cell and an image is
obtained. Using the commercial image processing soft-
ware’s (LaVision, Davis 7.4) calibration wizard, two points
on the grid which are 100 lm apart are selected and they
are co-related to number of pixels. For the optical system
used in the present work with a 10x objective, the con-
version factor is 1.36 pixels/lm.
5 Image processing and vector field calculation
Images from the high speed camera are acquired using
custom software (National Instruments, LabWindows
CVI). For each location, 1000 images are obtained at 200
frames per second. Figure 3a shows a raw image obtained
from the camera. A commercial package (LaVision, Davis
7.4) is used to process the images. In order to identify the
particles and their corresponding displacement, three main
steps in image processing are required, as outlined here.
The image pre-processing step involves identifying and
separating the tracing particles from the background. Fig-
ure 3a shows the glass spheres of 200 lm and the fluo-
rescent particles of 2 lm flowing around it, which appear
as bright white dots. The glass spheres are visible due to
the fluorescent signal emitted by the out of focus particles.
An inherent problem of flow measurement through packed
bed of microspheres is due to background noise. The
background fluorescent signal gets reflected in the glass
spheres which create a significant level of background
noise, this makes it harder to identify the tracing particles
compared to a simple microchannel experiment. An image
processing recipe was developed to improve the signal to
noise ratio. One of the major challenge was to remove the
background noise and this was done by effective selection
of pre-processing steps and the parameters. A non-linear
filter is used to subtract a sliding background over 6 9 6
pixels. A background subtraction algorithm subtracts a
constant value from the image, where as the sliding
background subtraction subtracts a variable set of intensity
from the image. It acts as a high pass filter which can filter
large fluctuations in the background and small intensity
fluctuations of the particle will pass through. An image
with constant background intensity is obtained after using
this algorithm, which is shown in Fig. 3b. The next pre-
processing step involves increasing the image contrast.
This was done by multiplying the intensity count by a
factor of 25. After multiplying, the intensity count for the
tracing particles is in the order of 10,000 where as the
background image has an average intensity count of 3500.
A constant of 5000 is subtracted from all the pixel values.
This removes the background image and only the tracing
particles remains in the images, which is shown in Fig. 3c.

Fig. 3 Image pre-processing (a) 600 (b) 600

step for region R2 and focal
plane location z = 25 lm. 500 500
a Raw image from the camera
400 400
showing glass spheres and
y (μm)

y (μm)

fluorescent particles around it. 300 300

b Image after morphological
background subtraction. 200 200
c Background noise is removed
from the image and shape of 100 100
few fluorescent particles are
shown (zoomed in). d Image of 200 400 600 800 200 400 600 800
fluorescent particles after x (µm) x (µm)
applying 3 9 3 Gaussian filter
(c) 470 (d) 470
y (μm)

y (μm)

430 430
210 256 210 256
x (µm) x (µm)

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194 Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200

A Gaussian smoothening filter is used to convert the ima- (a) 600

ges of the particles into circular images over 3 9 3 pixels.
Figure 3d shows the final image which is obtained after 500

preprocessing.
The same preprocessing algorithm is used for all the 400

experimental data. However, the illumination varies with

y (μm)
300
different region in space so the parameters of the image
pre-processing algorithm are changed accordingly. The
200
threshold value for subtraction plays a key role in the
image pre-processing step. An optimum value needs to
100
maintain for each data set. A high value for the threshold
count can result in eliminating particles with low intensity.
0
A low value can result in increasing the noise in the image, 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
so an optimum value for subtraction is essential. x (μm)
A combined PIV ? PTV time series algorithm is used
to compute the velocity field. The hybrid scheme approach (b) 600
produces reliable vector field with an increase in spatial
500
resolution compared to conventional PIV or PTV tech-
niques (Scarano and Riethmuller 2000; Stanislas et al.
400
2005). The hybrid scheme approach works in two steps.
The first step involves a conventional PIV algorithm, which y (μm)
300
determines the displacement of a group of particles within
an interrogation window between two consecutive frames.
200
The cross-correlation is performed in two passes, in the
first pass, the interrogation window size was 64 9 64 100
pixels with 50% overlap between the interrogation win-
dows, and the second pass was performed with 32 9 32 0
interrogation window with 60% overlap. The window sizes 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
were selected based on data obtained from correlation map. x (μm)
The second step involves tracking the displacement of
Fig. 4 The velocity field for the region R2 at flow rate of 60 ll/min
individual particles. A particle diameter range of 2–6 pixel and focal plane location is z = 25 lm. a Instantaneous velocity field
is specified to identify an individual particle. The intensity vector obtained by PIV–PTV process between two images. The vector
of the particle image is fitted to a Gaussian distribution and field is sparse with only few vectors. b Final velocity field after
accumulation of velocity vectors from 1000 images and distributed on
the location of the peak corresponds to the center of the
to a regular grid of 8 9 8 pixels. A dense vector field is obtained after
particle. Once the center of a particle is determined, an accumulation was carried out
interrogation window of size 8 9 8 pixels is placed such
that the particle center coincides with the center of the
interrogation window. The interrogation window size is flow is laminar and steady with time, the spatial variation
selected so that a single particle is inscribed in the inter- of the flow field is studied. This was done by accumulating
rogation window. The predicted value of displacement all the vectors from the time lapsed images on to a single
from the PIV algorithm gives an idea about the particle frame. Since the probability of two vectors originating
location in the next frame. This helps in avoiding false from the same point is low, the accumulation can be con-
pairing of particles by reducing particle search and also sidered to be a self-averaging technique. Even if two
increases the accuracy of the process. The interrogation vectors originate from the same point, the algorithm
window is shifted to the next frame based on this predic- computes the resultant of the two vectors. The accumula-
tion. An individual particle correlation is performed and a tion of vectors for 1000 images is done and is mapped to a
displacement vector is obtained. The displacement vector single image. The final image obtained has enough number
is divided by the inter frame timing to obtain velocity of vectors to quantify the flow field. However, there are
vector. A combined PIV and PTV technique is known to few spurious vectors which are believed to have originated
produce results with resolution of 1.2 9 1.2 pixels (Take- from the noise in the raw data. These vectors are removed
hara et al. 2000; Keane et al. 1995). using a median filter. Once the spurious vectors are
The instantaneous velocity field obtained is sparse and removed, the data are converted into a regular grid of
only few vectors are obtained as shown in Fig. 4a. The 8 9 8 pixels by linearly interpolating over 12 neighboring

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Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200 195

vectors, as shown in Fig. 4b. This results in uniform dis-
tribution of the vectors on the grid. Each vectors is sepa-
rated from the adjacent one by 8 pixels which corresponds
to a distance of 11 lm in real space.
6 Results and discussion
Figure 5 shows the raw images of 200 lm glass spheres at
different spatial locations. The heterogeneity in the
microporous media is captured by identifying four regions
named R1, R2, R3, and R4, as denoted by Fig. 5a, b, c, and
d, respectively. Flow through each of this region is studied
at different flow rates ranging from 40 through 100 ll/min
at steps of 20 ll/min. Experiments are conducted at two
different planes close to the wall, i.e., at z = 25 lm and at
mid plane of the first layer of spheres, i.e., at z = 100 lm.
The flow behavior at two different planes is quantified and
a comparative study was done. A few representative
locations with in the packed porous bed denoted by L1, L2,
L3, and L4, shown in Fig. 5 are selected and the velocity
profile is studied at these locations. The regions L1 and L2,
as shown in Fig. 5a and b, respectively, represents narrow
pore region between the two spheres. The relatively two
big pores are denoted by locations marked as L3 and L4 in
Fig. 5d.
The 2C2D velocity fields data obtained from the image
processing software are imported in Matlab (Mathworks,
R2010 B) for data handling and plotting. Some of the
symbols commonly used in the results and discussions are
defined here. |Vi| denotes the magnitude of velocity vector,
where the subscript i = 1, 2, 3, 4 represents velocity at
flow rates of 40, 60, 80, and 100 ll/min, respectively. The
velocity field, Vi, has two components, i.e., the x and y
components denoted by ui and vi, respectively. The average
vector field for the entire region in space is calculated by
PN
j¼1 jVij j
jVi j ¼ ð3Þ
N
where Vij denotes the velocity field at a spatial location for
a particular flow rate denoted by i, the counter j denotes the
number of vectors in a given region and N is the total
number of velocity vector in a region.
The 2C2D velocity plots for flow rate of 60 ll/min is
shown in Figs. 6 and 7. Figure 6 represents velocity profile
close to the wall at z = 25 lm and Fig. 7 represents
velocity profile in the mid plane location at z = 100 lm.
The magnitude of velocity is denoted by color maps and
the vectors are overlayed on top of the color map. Here |V2|
denotes the magnitude of the velocity field corresponding
to the flow rate of 60 ll/min. The color map shows that
each region has a unique velocity profile depending on the
arrangement of the spheres. In Fig. 6, a higher velocity
field was observed in the narrow pore region between the
spheres. The fluorescent particles moving very close to the
glass spheres are difficult to track due to negligible dis-
placement and reflection of background fluorescent light
from the edges of the glass spheres. As shown in Fig. 6,

Fig. 5 The pore structure at (a) 600 (b) 600

different regions is shown, each
region is 800 lm 9 600 lm.
a Region R1, b Region R2,
400 400
c Region R3, and d Region R4
y (μm)

y (μm)

L1

L2
200 200

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800
x (μm) x (μm)

(c) 600 (d) 600

400 400
y (μm)

y (μm)

L3
L4
200 200

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 200 400 600 800
x (μm) x (μm)

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196 Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200

Fig. 6 Velocity profile for flow (a) 600 (b) 600

rate 60 ll/min at four different |V | μm/s
2
regions in the porous medium. 500 500
1000
The color of the vector 400 400

y (μm)

y (μm)
represents the magnitude of 900
velocity field. Measurements are 300 300
taken close to the wall at 200 200 800
z = 25 lm. a Region R1,
b Region R2, c Region R3, 100 100
700
d Region R4 0 0
200 400 600 800 200 400 600 800
600
x (μm) x (μm)
500
(c) 600 (d) 600
500 500 400

400 400
y (μm)

y (μm)
300
300 300
200
200 200

100 100 100

0 0
200 400 600 800 200 400 600 800 0
x (μm) x (μm)

Fig. 7 Velocity profile for flow (a) 600 (b) 600

|V2| μm/s
rate 60 ll/min at four different
regions in the porous medium. 500 500
The color of the vector 500
400 400
y (μm)
y (μm)

represents the magnitude of

velocity field. Measurements are 300 300 450
taken in the mid plane location 200 200
at z = 100 lm. a Region R1, 400
b Region R2, c Region R3, 100 100
d Region R4 350
0 0
200 400 600 800 200 400 600 800
x (μm) x (μm) 300

250
(c) 600 (d) 600

500 500 200

400 400
y (μm)
y (μm)

150
300 300
100
200 200

100 100 50

0 0
200 400 600 800 200 400 600 800
x (μm) x (μm)

there are a few vectors which are identified on the top of
the sphere. The spheres are in contact with the glass slide
tangentially, so at z = 25 lm the particles are observed to
flow over the spheres. Whereas, most of the velocity vec-
tors in the midplane location are in the pore region and
there is hardly any flow on top of the glass spheres, as
shown in Fig. 7.
The velocity field at different marked locations, shown
in Fig. 5, are tabulated in Table 2. For each representative
location the velocity field close to the wall, i.e., at
z = 25 lm is compared with the velocity field at the mid
plane location, i.e., at z = 100 lm. Here, |VL| represents
the magnitude of velocity field at location L, jVj  is the
magnitude of average velocity field for the entire region of
800 lm 9 600 lm and the ratio of velocity jVL j=jVj  is
calculated. The value of the ratio gives an idea of the
velocity field in each location compared to the average
velocity field. The location, L1, close to the wall
(z = 25 lm), represents a narrow pore region between two
spheres and the magnitude of velocity is high, as shown in

123
Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200 197

Table 2 Comparison of velocity field at different locations denoted Table 3 A table summarizing flow conditions and Reynolds number
by L1, L2, L3, and L4 for region R2
Location z (lm) |VL| (lm/s) jV2 j (lm/s) jVL j=jV2 j jV1 j jV2 j jV3 j jV4 j

L1 25 820 270 3.03 Flow rate (ll/min) 40 60 80 100

L1 100 60 140 0.43 Mean velocity (lm/s) 117 165 198 246
L2 25 295 165 1.79 Rep 0.023 0.033 0.040 0.049
L2 100 81 113 0.72
L3 25 267 178 1.5
L3 100 342 149 2.3 (a) 0.5 v1 , Rep=0.023
L4 25 230 178 1.29 Curve fit to Norm Gaussian
0.4
Moroni and Crushman (2001)
L4 100 249 149 1.67

pdf(v1/σv )
1
0.3
|VL| represents the magnitude of velocity field at each location and
jV2 j represents the magnitude of average velocity for the entire region 0.2
with flow rate 60 ll/min. The magnitude of velocity for both planes
denoted by z is studied 0.1

0
−5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Fig. 6a. In this case, the magnitude of velocity is three v1/σv
times higher than the average velocity, as observed from 1

Table 2. However, for the same location L1 but at the (b) 0.5
center plane (z = 100 lm), the magnitude of velocity is v , Re = 0.023
1 p
0.4 v , Re = 0.033
lower because the pore space becomes significantly con- 2 p
v3, Rep = 0.040
pdf(v /σ )

stricted as the spheres are almost touching each other. It

i
v

0.3
v4, Rep = 0.049
has been observed that the magnitude of velocity, in gen-
i

0.2
eral, is higher at narrow pore locations. However, below a
certain inter-pore distance, the pore becomes impermeable 0.1
to the flow and magnitude of velocity decreases signifi-
0
cantly. Similar observation was made in region L2 where −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5
the magnitude of velocity decreases as one move from vi/σv
i
plane z = 25 lm to z = 100 lm shown in Figs. 6b and 7b,
respectively. Fig. 8 The probability density function (pdf) of non-dimensionalized
The velocity field at relatively big pores, denoted by L3 transverse (y-component) velocity (rvvi ), where rvi is the standard
i

and L4, are also studied. Cross-flow pattern is observed in deviation of vi, is plotted on the vertical axis and (rvvi ) is plotted on the
i

location L4, as shown in Fig. 6d. The magnitude of horizontal axis. The velocity data are obtained from region R2 at
velocity increases from z = 25 lm plane to z = 100 lm z = 25 lm plane. a pdf (rvv1 ) is denoted by asterisk. v1 is the
1

plane, as shown in Figs. 6d and 7d, respectively. The value
 increased from 1.5 to 2.3 as one move from one
of jVL j=jVj
plane to the other (refer Table 2). Similar observation was
made for location L4.
A further detailed study of velocity field is conducted by
using statistical methods. These methods allowed us to
compare our results with existing results for similar
experimental and numerical studies conducted for macro-
porous media. The velocity field at region B shown in
transverse velocity component corresponding to the mean velocity
jV1 j ¼ 117 lm=s and Rep = 0.023. A normal Gaussian curve fit is
done on the data as shown by dotted lines. The results are compared
with Moroni and Cushman (2001), denoted by upward pointing
triangle. b pdf (rvvi ) is plotted for four Reynolds numbers
i
The transverse component of the velocity field, vi, is
non-dimensionalized with its standard deviation, rvi , and a
probability density function (pdf) of (rvvi ) is plotted against
i

Fig. 6b is used for all probability distribution analysis. The
statistical velocity distribution is conducted at different
flow rates ranging from 40 through 100 ll/min in steps of
20 ll/min. The mean velocities and the Reynolds number
for the above mentioned flow rates are tabulated in
Table 3. Here, jVi j; i ¼ 1; 2; 3; 4 represents the magnitude
mean velocities in a region and Rep is the Reynolds number
based on particle diameter, dp, and mean velocity, jVi j:
(rvvi ), as shown in Fig. 8a. This allows us to compare the
i
results available in the literature. The velocity field
obtained in the current study closely fits a Gaussian normal
distribution curve with a regression square value of 0.98.
The velocity profile has a peak close to zero. The trends
seems to agree well with Moroni and Cushman (2001). It is
observed that the experimental data of Moroni and Cush-
man (2001) underestimates the peak, compared to the

123
198 Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200

−3
8
x 10 (a) u1, Rep = 0.023
u , Re = 0.023 1 Lebon et al. (1996)
1 p
7
u2, Rep = 0.033 Maier et al. (1998)
0.8

pdf( u/u1 )
6
u3, Rep = 0.040
pdf (u ) (s/μm)

0.6
5 u4, Rep = 0.049
4 0.4
i

3 0.2

2 0
−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 u/u1
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1.4
u (μm/s) (b) u1, Rep = 0.023
i
1.2 u , Re = 0.033
2 p
Fig. 9 The probability density function (pdf) of the longitudinal 1 u , Re = 0.040
3 p

pdf ( u /u )
(x-component) velocity, ui is plotted in the vertical axis and the values

i i
u4, Rep = 0.049
0.8
of ui are plotted in the horizontal axes. ui is the longitudinal velocity
component corresponding to mean velocity jVi j: The velocity data are 0.6
obtained from the region R2 at z = 25 lm plane. The pdf trend is
0.4
studied for different Reynolds number
0.2

present results, as shown in Fig. 8a. Moroni and Cushman 0

(2001) used bubbles as tracers to predict the flow field and
the optical system could not successfully sample velocity
fields close to the sphere surfaces. However, in our case the
PIV ? PTV algorithm can track the fluorescent particles
close to the wall and near zero velocities are obtained. This
results in an increase in the peak height since the number of
velocity vectors having magnitude close to zero increases.
Similar results for transverse velocity profile was obtained
by Huang et al. (2008). The probability density function
(pdf) of (rvvi ) is plotted against (rvvi ) for different Reynolds
i i
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
ui/ui
Fig. 10 The probability density function (pdf) of non-dimensional-
ized longitudinal (x-component) velocity (uuii ), where ui is the
arithmetic mean of ui, is plotted on the vertical axis and (uuii ) is
plotted on the horizontal axis. The velocity data are obtained from
region R2 at z = 25 lm plane. a pdf (uuii ) is denoted by asterisk. u1 is
the transverse velocity component corresponding to mean velocity
jV1 j ¼ 117 lm=s and Rep = 0.023. The results are compared with
Lebon et al. (1996) denoted by upward pointing triangle and Maier
et al. (1998) denoted by right pointing triangle. b pdf (uuii ) is plotted

number as shown in Fig. 8b. It was observed that with the
increase in Reynolds number, the peak height in the
velocity pdf increases. With the increase in Reynolds
number, more number of vectors are observed close to the
glass sphere surface, which contributed to an increase of
the peak height.
The pdf of the longitudinal velocity (ui) is plotted in
Fig. 9. The velocity profile is studied, at different Reynolds
number. The velocity profiles resembles the data obtained
from PTV experiments by Moroni and Cushman (2001)
and Huang et al. (2008). It has been observed from our
experiment that with the increase in flow velocity, the
positive trails of the velocity increases as shown in Fig. 9.
Similar trend for positive trail was observed by Maier et al.
(1998) and Moroni and Cushman (2001) for macroscopic
study. In our velocity field, no recirculation zone was
observed and there is no evidence of negative velocity
which could be due to the fact that experiments are con-
ducted at low Reynolds number. Maier et al. (1998) in their
numerical study showed that the decrease in Reynolds
number, the negative trails decreases due to lesser chance
of flow recirculation. Maier et al. (1998) showed that for a
for four different Reynolds number
random packed bed, the negative trail almost disappears for
Reynolds number less than 0.6.
For the purpose of comparing our results with available
data for macro-porous media, longitudinal velocity ui is non-
dimensionalized by dividing with its mean, ui : The proba-
bility density function of uuii is plotted in Fig. 10. The present
results are compared with numerical results provided by
Maier et al. (1998) and experimental data given by Lebon
et al. (1996). Maier et al. (1998) obtained a sharp peak at
zero axial velocity because the numerical method sampled
data very close to the spheres, within one lattice space.
Lebon et al. (1996) used nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) technique to obtain velocity distribution as shown in
Fig. 10a. A sharp peak was not obtained by them because of
loss of signal close to the surface. Similar results are
obtained for the current study. The PIV?PTV algorithm
could successfully track particles close to the surface of the
glass beads, however, there are particles which get attached
to the glass beads or particles which move less than its
diameter. This results in neglecting some of the velocity

123
Microfluid Nanofluid (2012) 12:189–200
fields very close to the glass beads and this explains the
nature of the peak. Similar distribution profile was observed
by Moroni and Cushman (2001). Since there was no nega-
tive velocity observed in our data, the peak is biased to the
positive side as compared to Maier et al. (1998) and Lebon
et al. (1996). Figure 10b shows the probability density
function, of uuii for different Reynolds number. Reynolds
numbers in the current study is in the order of 10-2. For such
low Reynolds number, creeping flow regime is preserved,
which is confirmed from Fig. 10b since all the velocity pdfs
fits into one curve (Moroni and Cushman 2001).
The PIV ? PTV algorithm was able to successfully
resolve velocity field within the random microporous
media. A future study can be conducted by generating a
structured porous media, as reported by Kumacheva et al.
(2003). A two component two-dimensional velocity field is
obtained in the current study. However, using the scanning
stage one can extend this study to a three component three-
dimensional case. A preliminary result of such study was
already reported by Sen et al. (2010). Results of such
studies can be useful in calculating the key transport
properties like permeability in a microporous media.
7 Conclusions
In this paper, a pore scale study of flow through micro-
porous media formed by packing of microglass spheres is
conducted. The experimental results demonstrate that the
present optical system can be used to quantify velocity field
in microporous media with pore size typically in the order
of 50 lm. The velocity fields are successfully studied at
different spatial location having different pore structure.
The optical system is also successfully used to study
velocity field at different planes close to the wall at
z = 25 lm and at the mid plane location of the first layer
of glass spheres at z = 100 lm. The image processing
techniques used in this study are significant in removing
noise originating from reflections on the glass spheres and
out of focus fluorescent particles. The image processing
tool used in the study can be used as a standard recipe
for future studies in microporous media. The hybrid
PIV ? PTV scheme was used to obtain reliable vector field
with subpixel resolution. The statistical distribution of the
present velocity field agreed well with available numerical
and experimental results pertaining to macroporous media.
It is found that the velocity profiles for microscale porous
media are similar in nature with those observed for mac-
roporous media. The techniques used in this paper can be
considered the first step towards quantification velocity
fields in a microporous media and future studies can verify
some of the fundamental transport equations in porous
media. The future work will involve a three-dimensional
199
measurement of velocity field for both random and ordered
packed bed.
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