Potential flow past a porous body with a core of different permeability (Q2277080)

D'Alembert's paradox states that if a steady uniform potential flow goes around a non-permeable arbitrary rigid body, then there would be no total force acting on the surface of the body. The first author, \textit{G. Miranda} and \textit{V. Villamizar} [J. Fluid Mech. 149, 59-69 (1984; Zbl 0575.76087)] solved the problem of potential flow past a porous body of arbitrary shape with constant permeability \(K_ 0\), as well s the interior flow on the corresponding porous media. This interior flow was represented as a viscous potential flow with the corresponding pressure related to the seepage velocity by Darcy's law. The solution of these flows was found by means of a pair of nonlinear Fredholm integral equations of the second kind. A formal solution of the mentioned nonlinear integral equations was given in terms of the solution of certain linear integral equation when the dimensionless parameter \(K^*=\rho K_ 0V/\mu R_ 1\) is small; here \(\mu\) is the fluid viscosity, \(\rho\) the fluid density, V is the magnitude of the uniform velocity at infinity and \(R_ 1\) is a characteristic radius of the arbitrary body. The exterior potential \(\phi_ 1\) was expressed as a linear combination of two auxiliary potential functions \(\phi_ 0\) and \(\phi '_ 1\) as \(\phi_ 1=\phi_ 0+K^*\phi '_ 1\), in which \(\phi_ 0\) is the usual potential function for the flow around a non-permeable body of the same geometrical configuration as the given porous body, and \(\phi '_ 1\) is the correction due to the fact that the body is porous. The total force acting upon the porous body due to the uniform exterior potential flow was found to be: \(F=\rho K^*\int_{S}\nabla \phi_ 0(\partial \phi '_ 1/\partial \eta)dS+O(K^{*2}),\) in which S is the surface of the body, and n is the normal unit vector directed outwardly from the body. Power et al. (1984) solved the case of the two dimensional uniform flow around a porous circular cylinder of radius \(R=R_ 1\) as an example for verification of the integral equation method, and found that in this case the flow exerts a drag force on the porous cylinder equal to: \(F=(2\pi \rho K_ 0/\nu)V^ 3e_ x+O(K^{*2}),\) in which \(e_ x\) is the direction of the uniform flow at infinity. It can be noted that this force is independent of the cylinder size. Regarding the nice boundary geometry of the above mentioned case, its solution can be found in an elementary way using cylindrical harmonic functions. Another case that can be solved without recourse to the integral equation formulation is the uniform potential flow past a porous sphere, \textit{H. Power} and \textit{R. Garcia} [A new paradox in potential flow theory (1986)] solved this case using spherical harmonic functions and found that the exterior flow exerts a drag force on the porous sphere which is linearly dependent on the radius of the sphere \(F=(9/16)(\pi R_ 1\rho K_ 0/\nu)V^ 3e_ x+O(K^{*2}).\) Here we will present the solution of two problems, a uniform potential flow past a porous circular cylinder and past a porous sphere, for each case the porous body is composed of two materials with different permeabilities. In both cases the total force exerted by the exterior flow upon the body is dependent on the thickness of the porous materials, and in the limit when the two permeabilities are equal, the previous results for circular cylinder and sphere, with constant permeability, are recovered.