A coupling concept for two-phase compositional porous-medium and single-phase compositional free flow

What is it about?

This paper presents a coupling concept applicable at the interface between a two-phase porous medium (e.g. soil with water and air) and a single-phase free flow (e.g. wind blowing over the soil). It couples a domain, where Darcy's law is applied with a domain, where the Stokes equations are employed. The concept is based on a local thermodynamic equilibrium. It allows, for example, to calculate evaporation fluxes from unsaturated soils under the influence of atmospheric processes.

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Why is it important?

The coupling concept specifies the interface conditions, which can be used in numerical models to simulate transfer fluxes of fluid components between a porous medium and a free flow.