Using cellular automata for porous media simulation

A cellular automata (CA) approach is proposed for simulating a fluid flow through porous materials with tortuous channels at pore level. The approach aims to combine CA methods both for constructing computer representation of porous material morphology and for simulating fluid flow through it. Morphology representation is obtained using CA whose evolution exhibits self-organization and results in a stable configuration. The latter is then used for Lattice Gas CA application to simulate fluid flow through a porous material specimen and compute its permeability properties. Special boundary conditions are introduced allowing for different smoothness of solid pore walls surface. The model has been tested on a small 2D fragment in a PC and then implemented to investigate a porous carbon electrode of a hydrogen fuel cell on 128 processors of a multiprocessor cluster.