A constitutive approach to 3-d nonlinear fluid flow through finite deformable porous continua

The present paper proposes a thermodynamically consistent Forchheimer-type filter law for application in macroscopic porous media theories. The constitutive flow equation is thereby capable of describing the essential nonlinearities during 3-d fluid percolation through deformable porous solids. In particular, tortuosity effects, anisotropic properties, and the indispensable influence of finite distortions of the interconnected pore space are accounted for. However, the common shape of a Darcy-type relation is retained by assigning all nonlinearities to a general permeability tensor. Finally, to show the validity and applicability of the proposed formulation, the filter law is correlated with the data of permeability experiments on a high-porosity polyurethane foam and is used in a 3-d finite element analysis to simulate the pneumatic damping properties of the material.     

Derivation of a Darcy’s Law for a Porous Medium Composed of Two Solid Phases Saturated by a Single- Phase Fluid: A Homogenization Approach

The objective of this article is to derive a macroscopic Darcy’s law for a fluid-saturated moving porous medium whose matrix is composed of two solid phases which are not in direct contact with each other (weakly coupled solid phases). An example of this composite medium is the case of a solid matrix, unfrozen water, and an ice matrix within the pore space. The macroscopic equations for this type of saturated porous material are obtained using two-space homogenization techniques from microscopic periodic structures. The pore size is assumed to be small compared to the macroscopic scale under consideration. At the microscopic scale the two weakly coupled solids are described by the linear elastic equations, and the fluid by the linearized Navier–Stokes equations with appropriate boundary conditions at the solid–fluid interfaces. The derived Darcy’s law contains three permeability tensors whose properties are analyzed. Also, a formal relation with a previous macroscopic fluid flow equation obtained using a phenomenological approach is given. Moreover, a constructive proof of the existence of the three permeability tensors allows for their explicit computation employing finite elements or analogous numerical procedures.     

非饱和颗粒材料的多孔连续体有效压力与有效广义Biot应力

多孔连续体理论框架下的非饱和多孔介质广义有效压力定义和Bishop参数的定量表达式长期以来存在争议,这也影响了对与其直接相关联的非饱和多孔介质广义Biot有效应力的正确预测.基于随时间演变的离散固体颗粒-双联液桥-液膜体系描述的Voronoi胞元模型,利用由模型获得的非饱和颗粒材料表征元中水力-力学介观结构和响应信息,文章定义了低饱和度多孔介质局部材料点的有效内状态变量:非饱和多孔连续体的广义Biot有效应力和有效压力,导出了其表达式.所导出的有效压力公式表明,非饱和多孔连续体的有效压力张量为各向异性,它不仅对非饱和多孔连续体广义Biot有效应力张量的静水应力分量的影响呈各向异性,同时也对其剪切应力分量有影响.文章表明,非饱和多孔连续体中提出的广义Biot理论和双变量理论的基本缺陷在于它们均假定反映非混和两相孔隙流体对固相骨架水力-力学效应的有效压力张量为各向同性.此外,为定义各向同性有效压力张量和作为加权系数而引入的Bishop参数并不包含对非饱和多孔连续体中局部材料点水力-力学响应具有十分重要效应的基质吸力.所导出的非饱和多孔介质广义Biot有效应力和有效压力公式(包括反映有效压力...     

Transport properties of heterogeneous materials. Combining computerised X-ray micro-tomography and direct numerical simulations

Feasibility of a method for finding flow permeability of porous materials, based on combining computerised X-ray micro-tomography and numerical simulations, is assessed. The permeability is found by solving fluid flow through the complex 3D pore structures obtained by tomography for actual material samples. We estimate overall accuracy of the method and compare numerical and experimental results. Factors contributing to uncertainty of the method include numerical error arising from the finite resolution of tomographic images and the rather small sample size available with the present tomographic techniques. The total uncertainty of computed values of permeability is, however, not essentially larger than that of experimental results. We conclude that the method provides a feasible alternative for finding fluid flow properties of the kind of materials studied. It can be used to estimate all components of permeability tensor and is useful in cases where direct measurements are not achievable. Analogous methods can be applied to other modes of transport, such as diffusion and heat conduction.     

Pore-Scale Simulation of Shear Thinning Fluid Flow Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

The present work attempts to identify the roles of flow and geometric variables on the scaling factor which is a necessary parameter for modeling the apparent viscosity of non-Newtonian fluid in porous media. While idealizing the porous media microstructure as arrays of circular and square cylinders, the present study uses multi-relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method to conduct pore-scale simulation of shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid flow. Variation in the size and inclusion ratio of the solid cylinders generates wide range of porous media with varying porosity and permeability. The present study also used stochastic reconstruction technique to generate realistic, random porous microstructures. For each case, pore-scale fluid flow simulation enables the calculation of equivalent viscosity based on the computed shear rate within the pores. It is observed that the scaling factor has strong dependence on porosity, permeability, tortuosity and the percolation threshold, while approaching the maximum value at the percolation threshold porosity. The present investigation quantifies and proposes meaningful correlations between the scaling factor and the macroscopic properties of the porous media.     

Asymptotic analysis of the equilibrium equation of a fluid-saturated porous medium by the homogenization method

The homogenization of static elasticity equations describing the stress strain state of fluid-saturated porous medium is considered. In this paper, the homogenization method is used to determine the pore pressure transfer tensor, which (a coefficient in the isotropic case) is an important parameter influencing the stress-strain state of fluid-saturated rocks. It shows what a part of the pressure in the fluid is “active” in the formation of macroscopic strains.The pore pressure transfer tensor is calculated for model and real geological specimens. The dependence of this tensor on the porosity, pore shape, and Poisson ratio is investigated. The use of the computational technique for determining the effective properties of rocks shows that it is practically important in the engineering geology.     

Calculating the Anisotropic Permeability of Porous Media Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method and X-ray Computed Tomography

A lattice Boltzmann (LB) method is developed in this article in a combination with X-ray computed tomography to simulate fluid flow at pore scale in order to calculate the anisotropic permeability of porous media. The binary 3D structures of porous materials were acquired by X-ray computed tomography at a resolution of a few microns, and the reconstructed 3D porous structures were then combined with the LB model to calculate their permeability tensor based on the simulated velocity field at pore scale. The flow is driven by pressure gradients imposed in different directions. Two porous media, one gas diffusion porous layer used in fuel cells industry and glass beads, were simulated. For both media, we investigated the relationship between their anisotropic permeability and porosity. The results indicate that the LB model is efficient to simulate pore-scale flow in porous media, and capable of giving a good estimate of the anisotropic permeability for both media. The calculated permeability is in good agreement with the measured date; the relationship between the permeability and porosity for the two media is well described by the Kozeny–Carman equation. For the gas diffusion layer, the simulated results showed that its permeability in one direction could be one order of magnitude higher than those in other two directions. The simulation was based on the single-relaxation time LB model, and we showed that by properly choosing the relaxation time, it could give similar results to those obtained using the multiple-relaxation time (MRT) LB method, but with only one third of the computational costs of MRTLB model.     

A Multiscale Network Model for Simulating Moisture Transfer Properties of Porous Media

A multiscale network model is presented to model unsaturated moisture transfer in hygroscopic capillary-porous materials showing a broad pore-size distribution. Both capillary effects and water sorption phenomena, water vapour and liquid water transfer are considered. The multiscale approach is based on the concept of examining the porous space at different levels of magnification. The conservation of the water vapour permeability of dry material is used as scaling criterion to link the different pore scales. A macroscopic permeability is deduced from the permeabilities calculated at the different levels of magnification. Each level of magnification is modelled using an isotropic nonplanar 2D cross-squared network. The multiscale network simulates the enhancement of water vapour permeability due to capillary condensation, the hysteresis phenomenon between wetting and drying, and the steep increase of moisture permeability at the critical moisture saturation level. The calculated network permeabilities are compared with experimental data for calcium silicate and ceramic brick and a good agreement is observed.     

膨胀性非牛顿流体多孔介质流动的模拟分析

在表征体元尺度采用格子Boltzmann方法分析膨胀性非牛顿流体在多孔介质中的流动,基于二阶矩模型在演化方程中引入表征介质阻力的作用力项,求解描述渗流模型的广义Navier-Stokes方程．采用局部法计算形变速率张量,通过循环迭代得到非牛顿粘度和松弛时间．对多孔介质的Poiseuille流动进行分析,通过比较发现结果与孔隙尺度的解析解十分吻合,并且收敛较快,表明方法合理有效．分析了渗透率和幂律指数对速度和压力降的影响,研究结果表明,膨胀性流体的多孔介质流动不符合达西规律,压力降的增加幅度小于渗透率的减小幅度．当无量纲渗透率Da小于10-5时,流道中的速度呈现均匀分布,并且速度分布随着幂律指数的减小趋于平滑．压力降随着幂律指数的增加而增加,Da越大幂律指数对压力降的影响越明显．     

Factorization of Transport Coefficients in Macroporous Media

We prove the fundamental theorem about factorization of the phenomenological coefficients for transport in macroporous media. By factorization we mean the representation of the transport coefficients as products of geometric parameters of the porous medium and the parameters characteristic of the multicomponent fluid saturating the porous space. The two permeabilities of the porous medium, the convective and the diffusional ones, are separated. A similarity between the diffusional permeability and the porosity–tortuosity factor of the Kozeny–Carman theory is demonstrated. We do not make any specific assumption about stochastic or deterministic structure of the porous medium. The fluxes in fluid on the pore level are described by general relations of the non-equilibrium thermodynamics.     

Coriolis Effects on Filtration Law in Rotating Porous Media

We investigate the filtration law of incompressible viscous Newtonian fluids in rigid non-inertial porous media, for example, rotating porous media. The filtration law is obtained by upscaling the flow at the pore scale. We use the method of multiple scale expansions which gives rigorously the macroscopic behaviour without any prerequisite on the form of the macroscopic equations. For finite Ekman numbers the filtration law is shown to resemble a Darcy's law, but with a non-symmetric permeability tensor which depends on the angular velocity of the porous matrix. We obtain the filtration analog of the Hall effect. For large Ekman numbers the filtration law is a small correction to the classical Darcy's law. The corrector is antisymmetric. In this case we recover a structure of law which is similar to phenomenological laws introduced in the literature, but with a dissimilar effective coefficient.     

Impact of Non-uniform Properties on Governing Equations for Fluid Flows in Porous Media

The macroscopic governing equations of a compressible multicomponents flow with non-uniform viscosity and with mass withdrawal (due to heterogeneous reactions) in a porous medium are developed. The method of volume averaging was used to transform local (or microscopic) governing equations into averaged (or macroscopic) governing equations. The impacts of compressibility, non-uniform viscosity, and mass withdrawal on the form of the averaged equations and on the value of the macroscopic transport coefficients were investigated. The results showed that the averaged mass conservation equation is significantly affected by mass withdrawal when a specific criterion on the size of the domain is respected. The results also showed that the form of the averaged momentum equations is not affected by mass withdrawal, by compressibility effects or by non-uniform viscosity, provided that the Reynolds number at the pore level is small. Nonetheless, the velocity field is affected by the heterogeneous reaction via the averaged mass conservation equation, and also by viscosity variations due to the presence of the volume-averaged viscosity (which value changes with position) in the averaged momentum equations. A new closure variable definition was proposed to formulate the closure problem, which avoided the need to solve an integro-differential equation in the closure problem. This formulation was used to show that the permeability tensor only depends on the geometry of the porous medium. In other words, that tensor is independent on whether the fluid is compressible/incompressible, has uniform/non-uniform viscosities, and whether mass withdrawal due to heterogeneous reactions is present/absent.     

The constitutive equations of finite strain poroelasticity in the light of a micro-macro approach

After recalling the constitutive equations of finite strain poroelasticity formulated at the macroscopic level, we adopt a microscopic point of view which consists of describing the fluid-saturated porous medium at a space scale on which the fluid and solid phases are geometrically distinct. The constitutive equations of poroelasticity are recovered from the analysis conducted on a representative elementary volume of porous material open to fluid mass exchange. The procedure relies upon the solution of a boundary value problem defined on the solid domain of the representative volume undergoing large elastic strains. The macroscopic potential, computed as the integral of the free energy density over the solid domain, is shown to depend on the macroscopic deformation gradient and the porous space volume as relevant variables. The corresponding stress-type variables obtained through the differentiation of this potential turn out to be the macroscopic Boussinesq stress tensor and the pore pressure. Furthermore, such a procedure makes it possible to establish the necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure the validity of an ‘effective stress’ formulation of the constitutive equations of finite strain poroelasticity. Such conditions are notably satisfied in the important case of an incompressible solid matrix.     

Application of results on Eshelby tensor to the determination of effective poroelastic properties of anisotropic rocks-like composites

The present work is devoted to the determination of the macroscopic poroelastic properties of anisotropic elastic porous materials saturated by a fluid under pressure. It makes use of the theoretical results provided by Withers [Withers, P.J., 1989. The determination of the elastic field of an ellipsoidal inclusion in a transversely isotropic medium, and its relevance to composite materials. Philosophical Magazine A 59 (4), 759–781.] for the problem of an ellipsoidal inclusion embedded in a transversely isotropic elastic medium. The particular case of a spherical inclusion is very important for rock-like composites such as argillite and shales. The implementation of these results in a micromechanical theory of poroelasticity allows to quantify the effects of the solid matrix anisotropy and of pore space on the effective poromechanical properties. Closed form expressions of Biot tensor and of Biot modulus are presented as well as numerical applications for anisotropic shales.     

Statistical Synthesis of Imaging and Porosimetry Data for the Characterization of Microstructure and Transport Properties of Sandstones

The microstructure of a suite of sandstone samples is quantitatively analyzed using a method which combines information from thin section micrographs of the pore space with mercury injection porosimetry in a statistical framework. This method enables the determination of a continuous distribution of pore sizes ranging from few nanometre to several hundred micrometre. The data obtained unify fractal and Euclidean aspects of the void space geometry, yield estimates of the pore-to-throat aspect ratio and challenge the ability of commonly used network models to describe fluid percolation in multiscale porous media. Application of critical path analysis to the prediction of flow permeability and electrical conductivity of sandstone core samples using the new information produces results comparable to those obtained by the classical approach—a fact attributed to the presence of macroscopic heterogeneity at the scale of several millimetres.     

A SIMPLISTIC ANALYTICAL MODEL OF PERMEABILITY FOR OPEN-CELL METALLIC FOAMS

针对通孔金属泡沫中的渗透率预测及现有理论模型的局限性,发展了一种新的全解析渗透率模型. 该模型以立方体结构作为代表单元,采用基于追踪流体微团轨迹的分支算法解析求解代表单元内的流动迂曲度. 渗透率的表达形式简单且不含任何拟合或经验参数,仅是孔隙率与平均孔径的函数. 采用实验测量和文献数据对模型预测进行了验证. 结果表明:提出的模型能够在较为宽广的孔隙率(0.55~0.98) 和孔密度(5~100 PPI) 范围内预测孔通孔金属泡沫的渗透率;采用分支算法得到的流动迂曲度能够较好地描述流体在通孔金属泡沫中的流动特征;采用开孔率修正的解析模型亦能对半开孔泡沫材料的渗透率提供良好预测.     

Poromechanics of freezing materials

When subjected to a uniform cooling below the freezing point a water-infiltrated porous material undergoes a cryo-deformation resulting from various combined actions: (i) the difference of density between the liquid water and the ice crystal, which results in the initial build-up of an in-pore pressure at the onset of crystallization; (ii) the interfacial effects arising between the different constituents, which eventually govern the crystallization process in connection with the pore access radius distribution; (iii) the drainage of the liquid water expelled from the freezing sites towards the air voids; (iv) the cryo-suction process, which drives liquid water towards the already frozen pores as the temperature further decreases; (v) the thermomechanical coupling between the solid matrix, the liquid water and the ice crystal. We work out a comprehensive theory able to encompass this whole set of actions. A macroscopic approach first provides the constitutive equations of freezing poroelastic materials, including the interfacial energy effects. This approach reveals the existence of a thermodynamic state function—namely the liquid saturation degree as a function of the temperature only. The macroscopic ice-dependent poroelastic properties are then upscaled from the knowledge of the elastic properties of the solid matrix, of the pore access radius distribution, and of the capillary curve. The theory is finally illustrated by analysing quantitatively the effects of the cooling rate and of the pore radius distribution upon the cryo-deformation of water-infiltrated porous materials. The theory succeeds in accounting for the experimentally observed shrinkage of embedded air voids, while predicting the partial melting of the ice already formed when the cooling suddenly stops.