Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 53, No. 22, pp.

3897—3909, 1998
( 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
PII: S0009–2509(97)00176–6 0009—2509/98/$—See front matter

Experimental characterization of flow

regimes in various porous media—II:
Transition to turbulent regime
D. Seguin,* A. Montillet,*s J. Comiti*s and F. Huett
*Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés, I.U.T. Saint Nazaire, UPRES EA no. 1152, BP 420, 44606
Saint-Nazaire cedex, France
tLaboratoire de Physique des Liquides et Electrochimie, UPR 15 CNRS Paris, Université Paris
VI, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, Cedex 05, France

Received 5 February 1998; accepted 26 May 1998

Abstract—This work deals with hydrodynamics in porous media beyond the end of the stable
laminar regime, at higher Reynolds numbers. Local measurements of current fluctuations were
carried out with electrochemical probes located at different positions in the porous media.
Owing to the use of the electrochemical transfer function, the spectrum of velocity gradient
fluctuations at the micro-electrodes and the velocity gradient fluctuating rate were determined.
In packed beds of particles, a stabilization of this fluctuation rate was observed at most
electrodes in the Reynolds number range covered. It is shown that this stabilization corres-
ponds to a locally turbulent flow. In reticulated media, no such stabilization was observed. The
characteristic length scales of the flow, i.e. the order of magnitude of the flow eddies dimensions,
were evaluated from the autocorrelation function of the velocity gradient fluctuations cal-
culated from the spectrum. They were compared to the pore diameter calculated from the
capillary model proposed by Comiti and Renaud [(1989), Chem Engng Sci. 44, 1539—1545]. The
stable values of the length scales obtained for high Reynolds numbers confirm the turbulent
nature of the flow regime. The flow regime transition is gradual from laminar to turbulent in the
entire bed, it is characterized with the pore Reynolds number, Re , based on the employed
p
capillary model: in packed beds presenting an isotropy in the plane perpendicular to the main
direction of the fluid flow, the laminar regime ends at Re "180 whereas a value of Re "900
p p
corresponds to the stabilization of the velocity gradient fluctuating rate at 90% of the
electrodes. Calculations, based on a pressure drop model related to the capillary representation,
show that the percentage of inertial effect on the pressure drop is then about 90% at this
Reynolds number in these packed beds. ( 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Porous media; turbulent regime; characteristic length scales; spectral analysis;
capillary representation; velocity gradient fluctuation

1. INTRODUCTION center of the bed. The ‘normalized fluctuating inten-

Very few authors have studied the characteristics of
flows beyond the laminar regime in different locations
of the porous media, which requires local measure-
ments. They have used mainly hot wire, flow visua-
lization, micro-electrode and laser anemometry
techniques.
Mickley et al. (1965) have used the hot wire tech-
nique to study turbulence in air flows through
a packed bed of table tennis balls (d "3.81 cm)
1!35
having a rhombohedral structure. Measurements, car-
ried out at particle Reynolds numbers Re "4780
1!35
and Re "7010, have shown that the fluid velocity
1!35
is more important close to the wall column than in the
s Corresponding author.
3897
sity’ of the velocity, F.R , varied between 20 and 30%
U
near the pore walls, where the maximum velocity was
reached, whereas it reached 50—60% at the middle of
the pores. The velocity fluctuation spectra presented
a characteristic decreasing zone with a !5/3 slope
corresponding to the energy transfer from the large
aggregates to the small ones. According to Kolmo-
gorov’s theory, this slope value characterizes an iso-
tropic turbulent flow. Considering the local velocity
fluctuations of the fluid, the authors have found that
the integral length scales of turbulence, i.e. the average
size of aggregates, were independent of the Reynolds
number. At locations of highest fluid velocity, away
from the pore center, they have obtained a constant
value of 0.27—0.28 cm. This value represents 31% of
the pore diameter value, d , defined in the capillary
p
representation proposed by Comiti and Renaud
3898 D. Seguin et al.
(1989) and used in the first part of this study (Seguin et
al., 1998), assuming a porosity, e, of 0.26. At the pore
center, the integral scale value was 0.14—0.15 cm.
Van der Merwe and Gauvin (1971) used the same
technique to study air flows in a packed bed of 7 cm in
diameter spheres having a cubic structure (e"0.48) at
Reynolds numbers Re respectively equal to 2500,
1!35
5000, 10,000 and 27,000. Due to a different flow con-
figuration, the velocity profiles determined were dif-
ferent from those measured by Mickley et al. (1965).
The turbulent intensity of the fluid velocity in the
center of the pores, where the fluid velocity was
maximum, was close to 25% for particle Reynolds
numbers of 5000 and above, which was consistent
with the results obtained by Mickley et al. (1965) for
locations corresponding to the highest fluid velocity.
At the pore center and at the highest Reynolds num-
ber studied, i.e. 27,000, the integral scale of turbulence
based on actual fluid velocity measurements were 2.0
and 2.85 cm. These values correspond, respectively, to
46 and 66% of the pore diameter value in this medium
(d "4.3 cm). The difference between the average
p ed
eddy sizes obtained in these two studies was explained
by Van der Merwe and Gauvin as an effect of the
rhombohedral geometry used by Mickley et al., which
inhibited the existence of a particular range of large
sizes of eddies.
Owing to a visualization technique, Jolls and Han-
ratty (1966) observed the turbulent nature of the
liquid flow in packed beds of 2.54 cm in diameter
spheres for particle Reynolds number Re above
1!35
300. The flow patterns showed a vigorous eddying
motion which could be seen 4 to 5 sphere diameters
away from the ink inlet location.
Dybbs and Edwards (1984) also performed a visual-
ization technique, in arrangements of cylinders, at
interstitial Reynolds numbers above 300. The stream-
lines observed were very similar to those described by
Reynolds in 1883 in a turbulent flow in a pipe, so
that the authors concluded that the flow in cylinder
arrangements was turbulent.
Latifi et al. (1989) used the micro-electrode tech-
nique to describe flow regimes at the wall cell of beds
packed with 5 mm diameter spheres. The fluctuating
rate of the current was found to decrease from its
maximum value, 0.008, reached at Re "174, to
1!35
0.001 obtained at the highest Reynolds numbers in-
vestigated, Re "700. As the Reynolds number in-
1!35
creased, the current fluctuation spectra were more
spread out towards higher frequencies. This was inter-
preted as an effect of the decrease of the size of the
liquid aggregates which became progressively small
enough to pass the interstices of the porous medium.
The !5/3 slope obtained for spectra at Reynolds
numbers above 330 characterizes the beginning
of a turbulent flow regime. This observation, as
well as the study of the frictional stress evolution
which was linear, in log—log representation, at least
until Re "370, enabled the authors to conclude
1!35
that a transition to turbulent flow occurred at
Re +400.
1!35
Rode et al. (1994) performed an accurate spectral
analysis of the velocity gradient fluctuations to ana-
lyze experiments carried out with the same experi-
mental apparatus as Latifi et al. (1989). At the highest
Reynolds numbers investigated, after the first
transition from stable laminar to unsteady flow, the
fluctuating rate of the current progressively stabilized
to a constant value. Various Reynolds numbers of
stabilization, all above Re "350, were obtained,
1!35
depending on the considered electrode. No evolution
of this type had been observed by Latifi et al. (1989).
The characteristic length scales of the unsteady flow
were determined from the spectral analysis of the
velocity gradient. They decreased when the particle
Reynolds numbers was increased and then stabilized
for Re above approximately 400. The macroscopic
1!35
scale, corresponding to the size of the biggest aggre-
gates, varied in the range of 2.5—3.2 mm and the
integral scale had a value of 1.6 mm. These dimen-
sions have the same order of magnitude as a pore
diameter, d, of 3.33 mm, defined by the authors as:
d" 1!35 . (1)
(1!e)
The shape of the velocity gradient fluctuation spectra
was very stiff after the hydrodynamic cut-off fre-
quency, indicating that the existing eddies were in
a very narrow range. They conclude that the cons-
istence between the average pore size and the
dimensions of the aggregates is ‘a manifestation of
turbulence but does not mean that the liquid flow is
a fully developed turbulent flow’.
Hall and Hiatt (1996) used the laser anemometry to
study turbulence of an air flow in ceramic foams of
porosity 0.85 and, respectively, 10, 20 and 30 ppi
(pores per inch). They showed that the only medium
in which a stabilization of the turbulence intensity of
the fluid velocity normalized by its superficial velo-
city, JuN 2/º was observed, was the foam of highest
0
pore diameter, i.e. 10 ppi. In this foam, the turbulent
intensity stabilized at a value about 60—80% at a pore
Reynolds number Re@ , based on the average physical
p
diameter of the pores and on the superficial fluid
velocity, of 150. The flow was then considered as
turbulent. In the foam of lowest pore diameter, the
velocity fluctuating rate was found almost constant
and the flow was essentially laminar in the flow rate
range investigated, i.e. 20)Re@ )200.
p
This literature survey points out a limited coverage
of the knowledge of hydrodynamics beyond the
laminar regime in porous media, especially for packed
beds of non-spherical particles. The main results are
gathered in Table 1. It can be noticed that at high
Reynolds numbers, while the regime is often described
as turbulent, the frontier delimiting this regime is not
well defined. This is partly due to the small number of
studies dealing with this subject and partly due to the
fact that most of them were carried out at a very
limited number of values of the Reynolds number.
Moreover, the characterization of a turbulent regime
 Flow regimes in various porous media—II 3899

Table 1. Results obtained in different porous media at high Reynolds numbers

References Porous media Measurements Remarks about the observation Criterion for flow regime
location of the turbulent regime characterization

Mickley et al. Spheres Internal Turbulent regime for Velocity fluctuation

(1965) d "3.81 cm Re "4000 and 7000 spectra shape
1!35 1!35
Jolls et al. Spheres Internal Turbulent regime for Visualization of turbulent
(1966) 2.54 cm Re "300 streamlines
1!35
Van der Spheres Internal Turbulent regime for Re " Velocity fluctuation spectra
1!35
Merwe et al. d "7 cm 2500, 5000, 10,000 and 27,000 shape. Velocity turbulent
1!35
(1971) intensity
Dybbs et al. Cylinders Internal Beginning of turbulent regime: Visualization of turbulent
(1984) arrangement Re /e"300 streamlines
1!35
Latifi et al. Spheres Wall column Turbulent regime above Fluctuating current spectra
(1989) 0.5 cm Re +400 shape. Friction factor evolution
1!35
Rode et al. Spheres Wall column for Re *300 Velocity gradient spectra shape
1!35
(1994) 0.5 cm Manifestation of turbulence but F)R evolution
i
no fully turbulent regime Liquid aggregate sizes
Hall and Hiatt Ceramic foams Internal Beginning of turbulent regime: Evolution of the velocity
(1996) Re@ *"150 turbulent intensity
p
Re@ based on the physical diameter of the pores and on the superficial velocity.
p

is open to discussion, as can be seen in the different
criteria proposed.
A study of the flow regimes over a wide range of
high Reynolds numbers in packed beds of spheres of
different diameters should enable to get more accurate
information about phenomena that are not well
understood yet. It should enable to improve the
knowledge of the evolution of the velocity gradient
fluctuating rate at high Reynolds numbers and help to
determine, in particular, the exact nature of the flow
regime as well as the Reynolds number corresponding
to the laminar—turbulent transition. This work also
mostly focuses on other types of porous media, such
as packed beds of variously shaped particles and
reticulated media, only investigated, to our know-
ledge, by Hall and Hiatt (1996).
The effect of the structure of those porous media
will be enlightened owing to the testing of different
dimensionless criteria for the characterization of the
observed flow regime transition. In particular, the
pore Reynolds number, Re , based on the application
p
of the capillary model proposed by Comiti and Re-
naud (1989) will be tested because it was shown to be
the most suitable criterion for the characterization of
the end of the stable laminar regime in beds packed
with particles presenting an isotropy in the plane
perpendicular to the flow. (Seguin et al., 1998).
— Packed beds of square based, 5 mm in side, para-
llelepipedal plates with different height to side
ratios: e/a"0.21 and e/a"0.44. As explained be-
fore (Seguin et al., submitted), according to the
orientation of the packing plane of the plates and
the main direction of the fluid flow, they can be
investigated either in the parallel or in the perpen-
dicular configuration by using, respectively, a cy-
lindrical cell of diameter 0.06 m or a square based
parallelepipedal cell of side 0.055 m.
— Synthetic foams of different grades, i.e. number of
pores per inch: G10, G20, G45 and G100.
Local measurements in various locations of these
porous media were carried out thanks to electro-
chemical micro-probes either located in networks at
the wall surface of the test column or inserted at the
surface of bed particles inside the porous media. In
packed beds of spheres, internal electrodes were either
located at the surface of a single particle inserted in
the fixed bed or facing the center of a tetrahedral
assembling made with four spheres. A more complete
description of the experimental technique and appar-
atus is provided in the first part of this study (Seguin
et al., 1998) as well as the capillary model em-
ployed and the structural parameters of these porous
media.

2. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY 2.2. Characterization of the velocity gradient

2.2.1. »elocity gradient fluctuation spectrum. In or-
2.1. Experiments der to analyze the experimental results obtained at
The porous media studied in this work were, re- high Reynolds numbers, i.e. after the onset of current
spectively: fluctuations, a preliminary analysis of the signal fluc-
tuations is necessary. It requires the determination of
— Two packed beds of, respectively, 5 and 8 mm in the velocity gradient fluctuation spectrum, but, as
diameter spheres. observed by Lebouché (1968), these fluctuations are
3900 D. Seguin et al.
filtered by the diffusional boundary layer at the active and the fluctuating rate of the velocity gradient was
surface. To take this phenomenon into account, the defined as
electrochemical transfer function, H( f ), between the J s2
diffusional current and the velocity gradient at the F.R " . (9)
s S
electrode must be determined. This function links the x
power spectral density at frequency f of the diffusional This fluctuating rate was calculated by integrating the
current fluctuations, ¼ ( f ), and that of the velocity
ii velocity gradient power spectrum ¼ ( f ) derived from
ss
gradient fluctuations, ¼ ( f ) (Deslouis et al., 1983;
ss the measured spectrum ¼ ( f ) of the current fluctu-
ii
Nakoriakov et al., 1983): ations with eq. (2).
¼ ( f )"DH( f )D2¼ ( f ) (2)
ii ss 2.2.2. Normalized autocorrelation function of the ve-
where DH( f )D is the amplitude of the transfer function, locity gradient. The velocity gradient fluctuation
so that the measurement of the current fluctuation spectrum also enables, by the application of the in-
spectrum ¼ ( f ), which is presented in the first part of verse Fourier transform, to determine the normalized
ii
this work (Seguin et al., 1998), allows determination of autocorrelation function of the velocity gradient, cal-
the velocity gradient fluctuation spectrum, ¼ ( f ). culated as
ss
Various expressions of the electrochemical transfer
:`= ¼ ( f ) cos 2nfq d f
function have been proposed in the literature. In this J (q )" 0 ss i . (10)
work, we used the expression determined by ss i :`= ¼ ( f ) df
0 ss
Nakoriakov et al. (1986) which has been successfully The characteristic time scales can be determined
experimentally tested by Deslouis et al. (1990) for from this normalized autocorrelation function:
a circular electrode embedded in a wall parallel to the
main direction of the fluid flow. When the electrode — q is the macroscopic time scale, it represents
0
diameter, d , is small enough, to avoid the effects of the lowest incremental time delay for which J "0. It
e ss
the normal velocity component, and when the follow- corresponds to the longest duration of oscillating
ing condition (Ling, 1963) is respected: events at the micro-electrode.
— the integral time scale, ¹ , is calculated by
*/5
S d2 integration of the normalized autocorrelation func-
x e '5000 (3)
D tion between q "0 and q "q . It corresponds to the
i i 0
average duration of oscillating events at the micro-
where S is the average velocity gradient at the electrode.
x

P
micro-electrode and D is the diffusion coefficient of q0
the ferricyanide in the solution, then, the amplitude ¹ " J (q ) dq (11)
*/5 ss i i
DH( f )D of the transfer function may be expressed as 0
a function of the normalized frequency p: Following Taylor’s hypothesis about isotropic tur-
bulence, orders of magnitude of the characteristic

A B
d2 1@3
p"2n f e (4) length scales can be determined by multiplication of
DS 2 the time scales by the average fluid velocity, º , in the
p
x
pores (Reynolds, 1973).
1 IM The macroscopic length scale, i.e. the maximum
f if p)1: H(p)"H(0)" (5)
3 S1 diameter, D , of the flow eddies is then defined as:
.!9
where IM is the average limiting current at the elec- D "º q (12)
.!9 p 0
trode.
and the integral scale, i.e. the average diameter, D , of
av
f if 1)p)6: the flow eddies as:
D "º ¹ . (13)
H(p)"H(0) (1#0.049p2#0.0006p4)~1@2 (6) !7 p */5
The different steps of the signal processing are sum-
C D
4.416 1.7 1.44 1@2
f if p'6: H(p)"H(0) 1! # . marized in Fig. 1.
p Jp p
(7) 3. VELOCITY GRADIENT FLUCTUATING RATE

Considering that the flow in the vicinity of the
micro-electrodes inside the porous media can be
locally approximated as a pipe or channel flow, this
electrochemical function was also applied to measure-
ments at internal probes.
As usual, the following decomposition of the velo-
city gradient was used:
S (t)"S #s(t) with s(t)"0
x x
3.1. Evolution of the velocity gradient fluctuating rate
Depending on the electrode location and on the
porous medium investigated, two experimental evolu-
tions of the velocity gradient fluctuating rate were
observed when the Reynolds number was increased:
— The velocity gradient fluctuating rate increased
sharply after the onset of fluctuations and then stabil-
(8) ized. Figure 2 illustrates this typical evolution of the
 Flow regimes in various porous media—II
Fig. 1. Different steps of the signal processing.
Fig. 2. Determination of the flow rate corresponding to the
stabilization of F)R .
s When observed, the stabilization of the slopes at
fluctuating rate F)R . The intersection between the fluc-
s
tuating rate plateau and the increasing portion of the
curve enables to determine the flow rate of stabilization.
— In some experiments carried out with foams, the
increase of F)R was continuous over the range of flow
s s
rate covered.
3.2. Interpretation of the stabilization of F)R
4
As shown before, stable fluctuating rates of the
velocity gradient or fluid velocity have been observed
3901
by other authors at high Reynolds numbers in porous
media (Rode et al., 1994; Mickley et al., 1965), but the
stabilization itself has not always been studied nor its
significance in porous media dicussed.
For pipe flows, the stabilization of the fluctuating
rate corresponds to the beginning of a turbulent re-
gime. This has been checked owing to experiments
with micro-electrodes located at the wall of our test
column without porous medium (Seguin, 1997). In
most experiments in porous media for which a stabil-
ization of F)R was observed at high Reynolds num-
s
bers, the evolution of the spectra shape was similar to
the one presented in Fig. 3. The slope of the spectra
was strong at low Reynolds numbers, decreased and
then stabilized when increasing the Reynolds number,
at a value close to !5/3, characterizing a turbulent
and isotropic flow in the vicinity of the electrode. For
several electrode locations and successive flow rates,
the slope was observed to stabilize at a value as high
as !3. This phenomenon may be due to the existence
of local areas in which the flow has a non-isotropic
turbulent nature.
a value close to !5/3 generally occurred at a particle
Reynolds number slightly higher than that corre-
sponding to the stabilization of the fluctuating rate
F)R . From these observations as well as the compari-
s
son to wall column measurements in a pipe, it can be
concluded that the flow regime obtained at the stabil-
ization of F)R was turbulent and nearly isotropic at
the considered micro-electrode. The evolution of the
velocity gradient spectra shape may be explained as
follows. At lowest Reynolds numbers, the energy cas-
cade could not develop and very few small eddies were
generated, resulting in a sharp decrease of the spectra
3902 D. Seguin et al.

Fig. 3. Velocity gradient fluctuation spectra of an electrode

inside a packed bed of 8 mm in diameter spheres at various
pore Reynolds numbers: Re "360, 495, 510, 810, 1125, 1425
p
and 1740.
Fig. 4. Measurements inside packed beds of spheres: per-
centage of electrodes for which a stabilization of F)R has
s
occurred versus the pore Reynolds number Re .
p

at high frequencies. At higher Reynolds numbers, flow

instabilities get more important and the decomposi- respectively, obtained inside the packed beds of
tion of fluctuating structures to eddies of all sizes spheres and at the wall column, especially for beds
down to Kolmogorov’s scale could progressively take packed with 8 mm in diameter spheres. As observed in
place resulting in spectra more spread out towards the first part of this work (Seguin et al., 1998) about
high frequencies with stable !5/3 slopes. the onset of fluctuations, wall column measurements
are not always representative of the flow inside the
3.3. Pore Reynolds number corresponding to F)R packed beds. On the other hand, the values of the
4 Reynolds numbers of stabilization of F)R , obtained
stabilization in packed beds of particles. s
In packed beds of particles, most electrodes present at electrodes located in a tetrahedral assembling, were
a stabilization of F)R in the Reynolds number range very reproducible in both packed beds, as shown in
s Table 3. These electrodes had a similar environment
investigated. For a given packed bed, the values of
Reynolds numbers corresponding to the stabilization which generated the same kind of local hydrodynamic
of F)R were very heterogeneous, their relative stan- behavior as already observed in the first part of this
s work (Seguin et al., 1998).
dard deviation, p /Re, reached 40% in packed beds
n~1 The numerous experiments performed in packed
of plates. The heterogeneity of these values confirms
beds of spheres in this study provide results represent-
that, unlike for pipe flows, the transition to turbulent ing the various particle arrangements and electrode
flow is gradual and does not appear at the same positions in the interstices. The dispersion of the re-
Reynolds number in all locations inside the porous sults is not surprising, the evolution of a local flow
medium. Therefore, the presentation of average re- perturbation being very dependent on its environ-
sults does not have any physical meaning, it is more
ment. As illustrated in Fig. 4, the flow regime changed
interesting to represent the percentage of electrodes
very gradually in the packed bed and even at the
for which a stabilization of F)R has occurred as
s highest flow rates investigated, the F)R measured at
s
a function of the Reynolds number, as illustrated in some electrodes was not stabilized yet. It may there-
Fig. 4 for packed beds of spheres. Moreover, this type fore be concluded that a turbulent regime in the entire
of diagram also enables to take into account the bed of spheres does not occur below a pore Reynolds
electrodes for which no stabilization was observed.
number, Re , of about 900, corresponding to a par-
The smallest Reynolds number corresponding to p
ticle Reynolds number of 600.
a stabilization as well as the Reynolds number corres- The values of turbulent intensity F)R of air velo-
ponding to the stabilization of F)R at 90% of elec- U
s city in the interstices of packed beds of spheres pre-
trodes have been determined for each packed bed sented by Mickley et al. (1965) and Van der Merwe
investigated. The results obtained for all packed beds and Gauvin (1971) are comprised between 25 and
investigated are summarized in Table 2.
50%, the lowest values being measured close to the
particles. These results are consistent with the values
3.3.1. Results obtained in packed beds of spheres. of F)R measured in this work, between 10 and 30% at
s
There is a significant difference between our results, the surface of bed particles.
 Flow regimes in various porous media—II 3903

Table 2. Stabilization of F)R in packed beds of particles: minimum pore Reynolds number corresponding to
s
a stabilization, pore Reynolds number corresponding to the stabilization at 90% of electrodes and average
fluctuating rate at the stabilization

Measurements Ratio of electrodes Re min Re 90% F)R p of

p p s n~1
location for which a stabiliz- (%) F)R
s
ation is observed

5 mm Internal 6/8 363 / 14 4

Spheres 5 mm Wall column 31/32 363 660 25 11
8 mm Internal 6/6 465 800 18 10
8 mm Wall column 15 /17 541 1160 21 9
0.21 o Internal 9/10 456 900 12 6
Plates 0.21 // Internal 7/11 300 / 12 6
0.44 o Internal 13/13 342 950 25 10
0.44 // Internal 7/7 447 850 21 8

Table 3. Stabilization of F)R at

s
microelectrodes located in a tetra-
hedral assembling in packed beds
of spheres

Re
p
5 mm spheres 510
8 mm spheres 464, 542, 542

For measurements at the wall column of beds

packed with 5 mm in diameter spheres, the few exam-
ples of evolution of F)R presented by Rode et al.
i
(1994) show stabilizations occurring at different par-
ticle Reynolds numbers, all above Re "350, i.e.
1!35
above Re "525. The values of Reynolds numbers of
p
corresponding stabilized F)R obtained by Rode et al.
s
(1994) are comprised in the range of dispersion of our
data at the wall column.
Fig. 5. Stabilization of F)R at electrodes inside packed beds
s
of plates e/a"0.44.
3.3.2. Results in packed beds of plates. The only
results analyzed and discussed here are those obtained
at electrodes located inside the bed, the wall column These results confirm that the difference between
measurements being not representative of the flow the configurations is much stronger for plates
inside those packed beds, as mentioned in the first e/a"0.21 than for plates e/a"0.44, as observed in
part of this study (Seguin et al., 1998). the case of the onset of fluctuations, presented in the
As in packed beds of spheres, the dispersion of the first part of this work (Seguin et al., 1998).
pore Reynolds numbers of stabilization is important, Above the Reynolds number corresponding to the
it is due to the various interstice sizes. The Reynolds stabilization of F)R , the velocity gradient fluctuation
s
numbers of stabilization in packed beds of plates spectra have, in most cases, a similar shape, as illus-
e/a"0.44 were very similar in both configurations, as trated in Figs. 7—9. Even if the slope of the spectrum is
illustrated in Fig. 5, at a given pore Reynolds number. not constant over the frequency range, it is, on aver-
The proportion of electrodes for which the stabiliz- age, close to !5/3, which corresponds to a turbulent
ation was obtained was almost the same in the two regime at the electrode.
configurations. On the contrary, in packed beds of
plates e/a"0.21, the results in the two configurations 3.4. Reynolds numbers of stabilization in synthetic
are very different. As shown in Fig. 6, in the parallel foams
configuration, at a pore Reynolds number Re "300, At the maximum flow rate investigated, corre-
p
the stabilization was reached at 50% of the electrodes sponding to a pore Reynolds number Re "700, the
p
whereas, in the perpendicular configuration, the first stabilization of F)R was observed at 10% of elec-
s
observed stabilization occurred at a Reynolds number trodes in the synthetic G10 foams whereas no stabi-
Re "456. lization occurred in the G20 foams. Moreover, the
p
3904 D. Seguin et al.
Fig. 6. Packed beds of plates e/a"0.21: percentage of elec-
trodes for which a stabilization was observed versus the pore
Reynolds number Re .
p
Fig 7. Velocity gradient fluctuation spectra in packed beds
of plates e/a"0.21 in the perpendicular configuration at
various pore Reynolds numbers: Re "585, 690, 900, 1060,
p
1330, 1490 and 1650.
values of the velocity gradient fluctuating rate meas-
ured at the highest Reynolds numbers investigated
were, on average, of 6 and 2% respectively in the G10
and G20 foams. These values are much lower than
those obtained in packed beds of particles at this flow
rate. As pointed out in the first part of this work
(Seguin et al., 1998) no onset of fluctuations could be
observed in the G45 and G100 foams in the flow rate
range investigated in this study.
The velocity gradient fluctuation spectra obtained
in synthetic foams G10 are presented in Fig. 10. The
slopes of the decreasing zone do not stabilize in the
Reynolds number range covered and most of them are
Fig 8. Velocity gradient fluctuation spectra in a packed bed
of plates e/a"0.21 in the parallel configuration at various
pore Reynolds numbers: Re "307, 345 and 385.
p
Fig 9. Velocity gradient fluctuation spectra in a packed bed
of plates e/a"0.44 in the parallel configuration at various
pore Reynolds numbers: Re "656, 670, 770, 925, 1080 and
p
1180.
steeper than !5/3. It can then be concluded that no
fully turbulent regime was observed in the Reynolds
number range investigated. This is consistent with the
‘laminarising effect’ of synthetic foams already ob-
served in the study of the end of the stable laminar
regime. A more complete investigation would require
higher flow rate measurements.
These results can be compared to those obtained by
Hall and Hiatt (1996) on velocity of air flows in
ceramic foams of porosity 0.85. They also observed
that, at a given flow rate, the turbulent intensity in-
creased with the diameter of the pores. Moreover,
they noticed that the flow was still laminar in foams of
small pore diameters at flow rates for which it was
turbulent in the foams of high pore diameters, i.e. of
 Flow regimes in various porous media—II 3905

Table 4. Reynolds numbers of stabilization at 90% of elec-

trodes in packed beds of particles

Porous medium Re Re Re
1!35 p i

5 mm spheres 533 800 1480

8 mm spheres 533 800 1480
Plates e/a"0.44o conf. 325 950 1049
Plates e/a"0.44// conf. 300 850 966
Plates e/a"0.21o conf. 170 900 483
Plates e/a"0.21// conf. '250 '400 '700

Re* 372 860 1090

p /Re 43% 7.6% 38%
n~1

*Results in beds of plates e/a"0.21 in parallel configuration

are not taken into account.

Fig. 10. Velocity gradient fluctuation spectra in synthetic

foams G10 at various pore Reynolds numbers: Re "890,
p
950, 1005, 1065, 1125 and 1245.

low grade. The roughness and the porosity of the

media studied by these authors were different from
that of the foams investigated in the present study, as
well as the nature of the fluids employed. Further-
more, Hall and Hiatt carried out laser anemometry
measurements in void volumes between sections of
foams, where the flow was likely to be different from
inside the media. It is then impossible to quantitat-
ively compare the results of these studies. Neverthe-
less, it is interesting to note that both of them showed
that, at a given flow rate, the fluctuations were more
important in the foams of lower grade.

3.5. Dimensionless criterion for F)R stabilization in

4
packed beds
To find the most appropriate dimensionless cri-
terion to represent the stabilization of the velocity
gradient fluctuating rate, the particle, pore and inter- Fig. 11. Stabilization of F)R in all packed beds of particles
s
stitial Reynolds numbers, respectively, denoted Re , except beds of plates e/a"0.21 in parallel configuration.
1!35
Re and Re were calculated. Their values at the stabil-
p i
ization of F)R at 90% of the electrodes inside the
s
different packed beds of particles investigated are pre-
sented in Table 4, as well as their relative error, with this criterion. It also enables to confirm that,
p / Re. globally, in this type of packed beds, the turbulent
n~1
It can be observed that, for all packed beds for regime was obtained at 90% of electrodes, i.e. in most
which the determination was possible in the flow-rate parts of the porous media, at a Reynolds number
range investigated, the use of the pore Reynolds num- Re +900.
p
ber, Re , provides a better representative value for the For beds packed with plates e/a"0.21 in the paral-
p
flow regime transition because it shows a much lower lel configuration, which are not isotropic in the plane
relative error than the other classical dimensionless perpendicular to the main direction of the fluid flow,
criteria. In those packed beds, an average pore investigations at higher flow rates are required.
Reynolds number Re "860 corresponds, with a sat-
p
isfying accuracy, to a turbulent regime at 90% of the 4. CHARACTERISTIC LENGTH SCALES OF THE FLOW
electrodes. Considering only the packed beds of par-
ticles presenting an isotropy in the plane perpendicu- 4.1. Evolution of the characteristic scales with the
lar to the fluid flow, all the results can be gathered in Reynolds number
the same diagram, as illustrated in Fig. 11. It shows The normalized autocorrelation functions were deter-
that the flow regime transition is very homogeneous mined for each electrode at all flow rates investigated.
3906 D. Seguin et al.
Most of them were similar to that presented in Fig. 12,
which shows that the macroscopic time scale de-
creased as the Reynolds number increased.
At low Reynolds numbers, high values of the mac-
roscopic time scale were obtained. When the flow
regime was not developed yet, the velocity gradient
fluctuations were irregular and the characteristic
length scales had no physical meaning.
At higher Reynolds numbers, the establishment of
the flow regime progressively took place and the fluc-
tuations occurred more regularly. For each electrode,
the stabilized macroscopic and integral scales were
determined by approximating the fluid velocity by the
average fluid velocity in the pore, º . Locally, in the
p
porous medium, the actual fluid velocity at the elec-
trodes may be very different from this value, yielding
a strong uncertainty on the length scales. Neverthe-
less, the values obtained give an order of magnitude of
the real size of the liquid aggregates. For most elec-
trodes, both length scales decreased down to a min-
imum constant value above a given Reynolds number,
as shown in Fig. 13 for the macroscopic length scale.
This type of evolution allows characterization of the
flow regimes because a stabilization of the length
scales is usually related to the beginning of a turbulent
flow regime. This observation confirms the flow re-
gime characterization proposed above from the velo-
city gradient fluctuating rate analysis.
4.2. »alues of the stabilized length scales in the porous
media investigated
4.2.1. ¸ength scales in packed beds of spheres. As
shown in Table 5, in the packed beds of 5 mm and
8 mm in diameter spheres investigated, the macro-
scopic scales showed very different values, the ratios
between the highest and smallest values measured
being, respectively, 5 and 3. Many authors (Van der
Merwe and Gauvin, 1971; Latifi et al., 1989, Rode
Fig. 12. Typical evolution of the normalized autocorrela-
tion function of the velocity gradient with the flow rate.
Fig. 13. Evolution of the macroscopic length scale at the
same electrode inside a bed packed with 8 mm in diameter
spheres.
et al., 1994), have suggested that the diameter of the
biggest aggregates is limited by the dimension of the
interstice in which they are occurring. The variety of
results is then not surprising; it represents the various
possible positions of the electrodes inside the different
interstices.
The macroscopic length scales can be compared to
the pore diameter defined by Comiti and Renaud
(1989), d , in the two packed beds. Their values are,
p
respectively, d "1.88 mm in the bed packed with
p
5 mm spheres and d "3.0 mm in the other bed.
p
Table 5 shows that the macroscopic length scales
measured at the electrodes inside a tetrahedral as-
sembling are very close to the pore diameters. This
may be a consequence of the homothetic environment
of these electrodes, which is similar to the average
pore. On the contrary, electrodes inserted at the sur-
face of single spheres can be located in interstices of
various sizes, leading to scattered results.
Inside the packed beds, the values of the integral
length scales lie between 0.3d and 0.8d , which shows
p p
that most eddies were smaller than the pore size when
the turbulent regime was established. This dispersion
of the integral scale may correspond to that of the real
dimensions of the interstices in the packed bed.
Length scales measured at the wall column of the
test section were higher than inside the bed. The
higher void fraction in this part of the bed induced
bigger interstice dimensions, resulting in higher dia-
meters of aggregates. Moreover, due to this porosity
profile, the fluid velocity close to the wall column was
higher than inside the porous medium (Mickley et al.
1965; Lamine et al., 1992), the values of the length
scales presented in Table 5 are then likely to be
smaller than the actual size of the aggregates.
4.2.2. ¸ength scales in packed beds of plates. The
ranges of macroscopic and integral length scales
obtained in packed beds of plates are presented in
 Flow regimes in various porous media—II 3907

Table 5. Ranges of stabilized macroscopic and integral length scales, D and D , average values and standard deviations in
.!9 !7
packed beds of spheres (number of determinations in parentheses

Electrode D range D p D range D p d

.!9 .!9 n~1 !7 !7 n~1 p
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)

5 mm Wall column 1.6—3.6 2.4 (19) 0.7 0.6—1.7 1.0 (19) 0.34
spheres At a single sphere 0.9—4.5 1.9 (5) 1.3 0.4—1.5 0.8 (5) 0.4 1.88
In a tetrahedral assembling 2.1—2.3 2.2 (2) / 0.86—0.90 0.88 (2) /
8 mm Wall column 1.8—5.4 4.0 (14) 1.3 0.7—3.0 1.5 (13) 0.6
spheres At a single sphere 1.9—3.2 2.5 (3) 0.5 0.9—1.0 1.0 (3) 0.06 3.00
In a tetrahedral assembling 3.0—3.2 3.1 (2) / 1.0—1.1 1.05 (2) /

Table 6. Ranges of stabilized macroscopic and integral length scales, D and D , average values and standard deviations in
.!9 !7
packed beds of parallelepipedal plates. (number of determinations in parentheses)

Plate Config. D range D (mm) p (mm) D range D (mm) p (mm) d (mm)

.!9 .!9 n~1 !7 !7 n~1 p
(mm) (mm)

e/a"0.21 // 0.8—2.4 1.75 (9) 0.5 0.32—1.1 0.68 (9) 0.24 0.91
o 1.55—4.1 3.0 (9) 1.0 0.62—1.5 1.1 (9) 0.44 1.5
e/a"0.44 // 1.2—3.0 2.0 (9) 0.7 0.44—1.0 0.64 (9) 0.2 1.51
o 1.5—4.0 2.39 (7) 0.85 0.6—2.0 0.98 (7) 0.46 1.56

Table 6. The dispersion of results is more important
than in packed beds of spheres, possibly due to
a stronger variety of interstice dimensions in the me-
dia. It can be noted that the order of magnitude of the
macroscopic length scales is in agreement with the
pore dimensions. Indeed, in most cases, the pore
diameter is very close to the smallest value of D
.!9
obtained.
In packed beds of plates e/a"0.21, the difference
between the sizes of the aggregates in the two config-
urations was important, showing the strong difference
of flow structure in those media. On the contrary, in
packed beds of plates e/a"0.44, the aggregate sizes in
both configurations were quite close, confirming the
similarity of the flows already observed in this work.
4.2.3. ¸ength scales in synthetic foams. No stabiliz-
ation of the characteristic length scales measured in
synthetic foams was observed, the decrease of the
integral and macroscopic scales was continuous over
the range of Reynolds numbers investigated, showing
that no turbulent regime was obtained. This is consis-
tent with the absence of stabilization of the velocity
gradient fluctuating rate observed above.
4.3. Conclusion
The stabilization of the characteristic length scales
provides another argument of the existence of a turbu-
lent regime inside packed beds at high Reynolds
numbers, most results being consistent with those
obtained in the analysis of the velocity gradient fluctu-
ating rate. Moreover, it is particularly interesting to
note that the determined macroscopic scales have the
same order of magnitude as the pore diameters de-
fined in the capillary model employed.
5. RELATION TO THE PRESSURE DROP EVOLUTION
Another interest of the capillary model is an accurate
modelling of the pressure drop inside the porous
media investigated owing to the expression proposed
by Comiti and Renaud (1989). This model, presented
in the first part of this work (Seguin et al., 1998), gives
the following expression of the pressure drop inside
the porous medium:
*P k2(1!e)3a3 q
" 7$ (Re #0.0121Re2) (14)
H 2oe3 p p
As explained in the first part of this study, whatever
the porous media investigated, a given value of the
pore Reynolds number always corresponds to the
same proportion of inertial contribution to the total
pressure drop. Figure 14 shows the proportion of
inertial effect to the pressure drop calculated with eq.
(14) at the characteristic pore Reynolds numbers cor-
responding to the onset of fluctuations and to the
stabilization of F)R at 90% of electrodes in packed
s
beds that present an isotropy in the plane perpendicu-
lar to the main direction of the fluid flow. At the
Reynolds number corresponding to the stabilization
of F)R at 90% of electrodes inside these packed bed,
s
the inertial stress, i.e. the second term of eq. (14),
represents 91% of the pressure drop in the porous
medium. The flow is then essentially dominated by
inertial strength, the viscous effect is almost negligible.
This result is consistent with the turbulent nature of
3908 D. Seguin et al.

Fig. 14. Proportion of inertial stress to global pressure drop [calculated from eq. (14)] inside packed beds
versus the pore Reynolds number.

the flow observed in most parts of packed beds at this
Reynolds number.
6. CONCLUSION
New information about flow regimes in various
porous media have been determined owing to the
spectral analysis of the current and velocity gradient
fluctuations measured at electrochemical probes
located at different positions in the media. This work
also shows the necessity of internal measurements in
packed beds of particles, but not in synthetic foams.
In all packed beds of particles, the evolution of the
velocity gradient fluctuating rate, F)R , shows a stabil-
s p
ization at high Reynolds numbers for most electrodes.
The spectral analysis of the velocity gradient fluctu-
ations and the determination of the characteristic
length scales of the flow show that the flow regime is
then locally turbulent. The transition to the turbulent
flow regime in the whole packed bed is gradual, it
occurs at various Reynolds numbers according to the
location in the porous medium. This phenomenon can
explain the gradual changes observed in pressure
drop and mass transfer correlations reported in the
literature.
In synthetic foams, no turbulent regime was detec-
ted in the Reynolds numbers range investigated, con-
firming the ‘laminarising effect’ observed in the first
part of this study (Seguin et al., 1998) concerning the
onset of fluctuations in the same porous media.
In packed beds of particles presenting an isotropy
in the plane perpendicular to the main direction of the
fluid flow, the turbulent regime was observed, for 90%
of electrodes, at a pore Reynolds number Re +900.
p
As noticed for the end of the stable laminar regime, in
the first part of this study, the other dimensionless
criteria tested failed in characterizing this flow regime
transition.
Calculations, based on the application of the capil-
lary model of Comiti and Renaud (1989), show that, at
this Reynolds number, the inertial contribution rep-
resents almost 91% of the pressure drop, whereas it
represents 70% at Re "180, corresponding to the
onset of fluctuations. This capillary representation
then enables an accurate characterization of flow re-
gime transition in packed beds of particles presenting
an isotropy in the plane perpendicular to the main
direction of the fluid flow.
NOTATION
a side length of a parallelepiped plate, m
a dynamic specific surface area, m~1
vd
d pore diameter defined by Rode et al. (1994).
d electrode diameter, m
e
d pore diameter, "4e/(1!e)a , m
p vd
d particle diameter, "6/a , m
1!35 74
D diffusion coefficient of the reacting species,
m2 s~1
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