ABSTRACT
Porous materials are encountered in both our daily lives and the natural environment. Examples range from everyday objects like sponges, bread, paper, coffee filters, scrubbers, cotton fabric, and balsa wood to naturally occurring substances like corals, soil, lava rock, caves, caverns, pumice stone, sandstone, bones, and coral reefs. These materials typically consist of solid or semi-solid substances that contain voids and pores. In various applications and engineering systems, porous materials interact with diverse fluid flows. A profound understanding of how fluids move through porous materials is essential for optimizing system designs, enhancing processes, developing devices, and tackling various challenges. Consequently, a comprehensive comprehension of flow through porous materials holds substantial significance. This chapter delves deeply into the essential principles of fluid flow through porous materials, explores modeling approaches for both single and multiphase flows, and presents a practical case study that vividly illustrates the drying process of cotton within a pneumatic conveyer belt system. The modeling approach and case study specifically emphasize the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the critical findings from the case study are thoroughly discussed. Overall, this chapter serves as a valuable resource for students, scientists, researchers, and engineers engaged in various industries.
