S. Khayamyan - Division of Fluid Mechanics, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, SE-۹۷۱ ۸۷, Sweden
T. S. Lundström - Division of Fluid Mechanics, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, SE-۹۷۱ ۸۷, Sweden

The transition from laminar to turbulent flow in porous media is studied with a pore doublet model consisting of pipes with different diameter. The pressure drop over all pipes is recorded by pressure transducers for different flow rates. Results show that the flow in the parallel pipes is redistributed when turbulent slugs pass through one of them and six different flow zones were identified by studying the difference between the Re in the parallel pipes. Each flow zone starts when the flow regime of one of the pipe changes. Transitional flow of each pipe increases the correlation between different pipes pressure drop fluctuations. Frequency analysis of the pressure drops show that the larger pipe makes the system to oscillate by the presence of turbulent patches in its flow. However, when the flow in the smaller pipe enters into the transitional zone the larger pipe starts to follow the fluctuations of the smaller pipe.

Porous media, Transitional flow, Pore doublet model, Turbulent flow, pipe flow