Mathematical modeling of the dissolving and deposition processes during solution seepage in a porous medium

A mathematical model that describes solution seepage in a porous medium and the processes of mineral dissolving and secondary deposition is proposed. Self-similar solutions describing the motion of the leading and trailing fronts, that is, the boundaries of the complete-dissolving zone, are determined. The main features of the processes under consideration are studied and numerical calculations are performed. It is shown that the model describes well the experimental data on mineral leaching by sulfate solutions. The dynamics of mineral extraction from productive solutions in a medium with a nonuniformacidity distribution are investigated. It is shown that, in the elevated-PH zones, the mineral is dissolved; whereas, in the low-acidity zones, secondary deposition of the mineral occurs. In the latter case, after the work has been completed, the bed may contain more or less considerable mineral resources, depending on the extent of the low-PH zone and its proximity to an extraction well.     

Subgrid modeling of filtration and dispersion in a fractal porous medium

The equations are obtained for effective coefficients of correlated random fields of permeability and porosity in a fractal porous medium. The fields have log-normal distributions. The refined perturbation theory is formulated that uses some ideas of the Wilson renormalization group. The theoretical results are compared with the results of a direct numerical modeling and the results of the conventional perturbation theory. The advantages of the refined perturbation theory over the conventional perturbation theory are demonstrated.     

On a nonlinear degenerate parabolic equation in infiltration or evaporation through a porous medium

We prove the uniqueness (as well as the existence and regularity) of solutions of the Cauchy problem and of the first and mixed boundary value problems for the equation u_t = φ(u)_xx + b(u)_x. (E) φ and b are assumed to belong to a large class of functions, including, in particular, cases φ(u) = u^m, b(u) = u^λ, m ⩾ 1 and λ > 0.     

Mathematical modeling of flows through inelastic porous solids

We propose a framework, based on classical mixture theory, to describe the isothermal flow of an incompressible fluid through a deformable inelastic porous solid. The modeling of the behavior of the inelastic solid takes into account changes in the elastic response due to evolution in the microstructure of the material. We apply the model to a compression layer problem. The mathematical problem generated by the model is a free boundary problem.     

Mathematical modeling of the vertical magnetic dipole field in a two-dimensional nonhomogeneous medium

We consider a quasi-three-dimensional problem of remote marine sounding by a high-power stationary source located on land. A transition from the three-dimensional problem to a family of parametric two-dimensional problems is performed. The solution of the remote marine sounding problem is obtained with high accuracy after solving about 20 two-dimensional problems. The integral equations are solved by the modified integral current method, which has proved highly efficient for field computations inside a strongly conducting anomaly. The electric field amplitude is observed to increase with depth. The width of the coastal current channel is estimated by analyzing the vertical magnetic field component.     

Classical solution for a nonlinear hybrid system modeling combustion in a multilayer porous medium

Combustion processes in porous media have been used by the petroleum engineering industry to extract heavy oil from reservoirs. This study focuses on a one-dimensional nonlinear hybrid system consisting of $n$ reaction–diffusion–convection equations coupled with $n$ ordinary differential equations, which models a combustion front moving through a porous medium with $n$ parallel layers. The state variables are the temperature and fuel concentration in each layer. Coupling occurs in both the reaction function and differential operator coefficients. We prove the existence of a classical solution, first locally and then globally over time, to an initial and boundary value problem for the corresponding system. The proof uses a new approach for combustion problems in porous media. The local solution is obtained by defining an operator in a set of Hölder continuous functions and using Schauder’s fixed-point theorem to find a fixed point as the desired solution. Using Zorn’s lemma, we extend the local solution to a global solution, proving that the first-order spatial derivative of the temperature in each layer is a bounded function.     

On existence and uniqueness for a coupled system modeling immiscible flow through a porous medium

We consider a system of nonlinear coupled partial differential equations that models immiscible two-phase flow through a porous medium. A primary difficulty with this problem is its degenerate nature. Under reasonable assumptions on the data, and for appropriate boundary and initial conditions, we prove the existence of a weak solution to the problem, in a certain sense, using a compactness argument. This is accomplished by regularizing the problem and proving that the regularized problem has a unique solution which is bounded independently of the regularization parameter. We also establish a priori estimates for uniqueness of a solution.     

Steady flow in a deformable porous medium

A nonlinear model for a steady flow in a deformable porous medium is considered. The flow is governed by the poroelasticity system consisting of an elasticity equation for the displacement of the porous medium and Darcy's equation for the pressure in the fluid. This poroelasticity system is nonlinear when the permeability in Darcy's equation is assumed to depend on the dilatation of the porous medium. Existence and uniqueness of a weak solution of this poroelasticity system is established under rather weak assumptions on the regularity of the data. Convergence of a finite element approximation is proved and verified through numerical experiments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extremal geometry of a Brownian porous medium

The path \(W[0,t]\) of a Brownian motion on a \(d\) -dimensional torus \(\mathbb T ^d\) run for time \(t\) is a random compact subset of \(\mathbb T ^d\) . We study the geometric properties of the complement \(\mathbb T ^d{{\setminus }} W[0,t]\) as \(t\rightarrow \infty \) for \(d\ge 3\) . In particular, we show that the largest regions in \(\mathbb T ^d{{\setminus }} W[0,t]\) have a linear scale \(\varphi _d(t)=[(d\log t)/(d-2)\kappa _d t]^{1/(d-2)}\) , where \(\kappa _d\) is the capacity of the unit ball. More specifically, we identify the sets \(E\) for which \(\mathbb T ^d{{\setminus }} W[0,t]\) contains a translate of \(\varphi _d(t)E\) , and we count the number of disjoint such translates. Furthermore, we derive large deviation principles for the largest inradius of \(\mathbb T ^d{{\setminus }} W[0,t]\) as \(t\rightarrow \infty \) and the \(\varepsilon \) -cover time of \(\mathbb T ^d\) as \(\varepsilon \downarrow 0\) . Our results, which generalise laws of large numbers proved by Dembo et al. (Electron J Probab 8(15):1–14, 2003), are based on a large deviation estimate for the shape of the component with largest capacity in \(\mathbb T ^d{{\setminus }} W_{\rho (t)}[0,t]\) , where \(W_{\rho (t)}[0,t]\) is the Wiener sausage of radius \(\rho (t)\) , with \(\rho (t)\) chosen much smaller than \(\varphi _d(t)\) but not too small. The idea behind this choice is that \(\mathbb T ^d {{\setminus }} W[0,t]\) consists of “lakes”, whose linear size is of order \(\varphi _d(t)\) , connected by narrow “channels”. We also derive large deviation principles for the principal Dirichlet eigenvalue and for the maximal volume of the components of \(\mathbb T ^d {{\setminus }} W_{\rho (t)}[0,t]\) as \(t\rightarrow \infty \) . Our results give a complete picture of the extremal geometry of \(\mathbb T ^d{{\setminus }} W[0,t]\) and of the optimal strategy for \(W[0,t]\) to realise extreme events.     

The porous medium equation in a two-component domain

We consider a system of two porous medium equations defined on two different components of the real line, which are connected by the nonlinear contact condition

     

Linear and non-linear magnetoconvection in a porous medium

Linear and non-linear magnetoconvection in a sparsely packed porous medium with an imposed vertical magnetic field is studied. In the case of linear theory the conditions for direct and oscillatory modes are obtained using the normal modes. Conditions for simple and Hopf-bifurcations are also given. Using the theory of self-adjoint operator the variation of critical eigenvalue with physical parameters and boundary conditions is studied. In the case of non-linear theory the subcritical instabilities for disturbances of finite amplitude is discussed in detail using a truncated representation of the Fourier expansion. The formal eigenfunction expansion procedure in the Fourier expansion based on the eigenfunctions of the corresponding linear stability problem is justified by proving a completeness theorem for a general class of non-self-adjoint eigenvalue problems. It is found that heat transport increases with an increase in Rayleigh number, ratio of thermal diffusivity to magnetic diffusivity and porous parameter but decreases with an increase in Chandrasekhar number.     

Wave propagation in a fluid-saturated inhomogeneous porous medium

A closed system of constitutive equations for the dynamical and geometric quantities in a fluid- saturated inhomogeneous elastic porous medium is constructed within the framework of the three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The geometrical characteristics of the wave front and of the ray in a fluid-saturated inhomogeneous medium are obtained from the Fermi's principle.     

Flow of oil and water in a porous medium

The flow of two immiscible and incompressible fluids in a porous medium is described by a system of quasilinear degenerate partial differential equations. In this paper the existence of a weak solution by regularization is shown.     

Finite element modeling of a leaking third component migration from a heat source buried into a fluid saturated porous medium

A finite element model for a leaking species migration from a heat source buried into a fluid saturated porous medium is demonstrated. A semi-implicit algorithm is coupled with the velocity correction procedure to solve the transient equations of the generalised porous medium model. A parametric study is carried out for different Darcy and Rayleigh numbers and size of the leaking hole. The results show that the leaking hole size has a significant effect on migration of the third component into the porous medium.