Numerical Simulation of Non-Newtonian Multiphase Flow in Porous Media Using a Generalized Newtonian Model in OpenFOAM

Resumo

The simulation of non-Newtonian fluid flow in porous media remains a significant challenge due to the complex rheology of such fluids and the structural heterogeneity of porous materials. This work presents a numerical approach for modeling multiphase flows of non-Newtonian fluids using a Generalized Newtonian (Power-law) rheological model, implemented within the open-source computational framework OpenFOAM. The strategy employs advanced discretization techniques and extends existing OpenFOAM libraries originally designed for Newtonian fluid simulations. Recently, the numerical implementation was validated through comparisons with analytical solutions for test cases, demonstrating the accuracy and robustness of the developed code in simulating Power-law fluid flow in porous media. These results highlight the viability of the proposed approach for more complex studies involving the transport of non-Newtonian fluids in natural or synthetic porous structures.