LBM investigations on a chain reaction in a reactive electro-kinetic flow in porous material

A 2D model is developed for a simplified reactive electro-kinetic fluid in dielectric porous media based on the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). The momentum, concentration and electric fields are simulated via the Navier-Stokes, advection-diffusion/Nernst-Planck and Poisson equations, respectively. With this model, the density, velocity, concentration of the chemical constituents and electric fields, and the interaction between these fields, can be studied. This allows us to get an insight into the interplay between chemistry and fluid physics in the porous medium. In this work, two types of simplified reactions are studied, namely, surface reactions and dissociation reactions. The results show that the conversion efficiency of both reactions can be strongly influenced by the flow and reactor packing parameters such as the fluid velocity, reactant concentration and the porosity of the porous medium. These different effects make the reaction conversion efficiency display a non-trivial and non-monotonic behavior as a function of the flow and reaction parameters. An analytical model of a simplified chain reaction consisting of both reactions is further studied in this electro-kinetic fluid system. Using this model, one could optimize the choice of the flow and reaction parameters to improve the performance of the reactions and achieve higher production rates.