Flow through porous media occurs in many industrial systems like geological, biological, etc. In recent times, with the advent of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuels Cells, the CFD modelling of the transport process within the fuel cells has become very critical. Additionally, the presence of multiple phases within the fuel cell adds to the complexities of modelling.
Traditionally, many flow solvers have used the simplified approach towards modelling porous media by providing viscous and inertial resistance terms within the Navier-Stokes momentum equation which is an interpretation of the Darcy-Forchheimer law. However, within this simplification, there can be numerous effects associated with modelling of the permeability within the porous media. In the current paper, we demonstrate a model to simulate multiphase flow through porous media using different formulations for relative permeability. We validate the model with Buckley- Leverett method for Air-Water and Water-Oil solutions. Finally, we simulate a case which is representative of the flow of liquid through the various porous zones inside a PEM Fuel Cell, namely the Catalyst layer (CL), the Membrane (ML) and the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL). We will study the effect of different permeability formulations on flow through the three porous layers, namely CL, ML, and GDL.