Saline Water Evaporation and Crystallization-Induced Deformations in Building Stone: Insights from High-Resolution Neutron Radiography

Transport in Porous Media - To assess salt damage risks in building materials and geomaterials, the key components to identify are the accumulation of salts and the damage propagation. Experimental...     

Water Absorption into Construction Materials: Comparison of Neutron Radiography Data with Network Absorption Models

Two different porous building materials have been previously measured and analysed (El-Abd and Milczarek, 2004, IEEE Trans. Nuclear Sci.; El-Abd et al., 2004, J. Phys. D) using neutron radiography to measure the water front position over time. The results from this experimental approach show a similar behaviour to the predictions from idealised model structures, in that there is a cross over point where the fastest rate of absorption at first favours the finer structure material and at later times favours the coarser pore structure material. The computer model, Pore-Cor** is used to generate the idealised structures and the absorption of fluid into porous structures follows a Bosanquet wetting algorithm for fluids undergoing both inertial and viscous dynamical flow (Ridgway and Gane, 2002, Colloids Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 206, 217–239.). The model structures comprise cubic pores connected by cylindrical throats on a three-dimensional 10× 10× 10 position matrix simulating the void structure of porous media by fitting as closely as possible the modelled mercury intrusion curve to that of the experimentally determined mercury intrusion curve of the actual sample. They show the transition that occurs in the absorption behaviour from the linear t-dependent short timescale inertial regime to the familiar √t Lucas-Washburn viscous regime. The simulated absorption algorithm applied to these model structures also shows a fluid position behaviour that replicates qualitatively, given the limitation of representative sample volume, the cross over seen experimentally. Furthermore, the existence of a preferred wetting path is demonstrated in the experimental as well as the model wetting front behaviour. In the case of the structure containing the broader range of pore sizes, the wetting front is considered to proceed by a network of optimal size combinations (inertial wetting versus viscous drag) and connectivity, leaving some pores behind the wetting front unfilled or only partially filled. ** Pore-Cor is a software program of the Environmental and Fluids Modelling Group, University of Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA, U.K.     

Using Semi Circular Bending Test to Evaluate Low Temperature Fracture Resistance for Asphalt Concrete

This work presents a repeatable semi circular bending (SCB) fracture test to evaluate the low temperature fracture resistance of asphalt mixture. The fracture resistance of six asphalt mixtures, which represent a combination of factors such as binder type, binder modifier, aggregate type, and air voids, and two testing conditions of loading rate and initial notch length, was evaluated by performing SCB fracture tests at three low temperatures. Fracture energy was calculated from the experimental data. Experimental results indicated strong dependence of the low temperature fracture resistance on the test temperature. Experimental plots and low coefficient of variation (COV) values from three replicates show a satisfactory repeatability from the test. The results of the analysis showed that fracture resistance of asphalt mixtures is significantly affected by type of aggregate and air void content. Experimental results also confirmed the significance of binder grade and modifier type with relation to cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures. Analysis of result also indicated that both the loading rate and initial notch length had significant effect on the fracture energy at the highest test temperature, whereas the effect was strongly diluted at the two lower temperatures. No clear trend was found with the fracture peak load from either the effect of loading rate or notch length.     

Quantitative In-situ Analysis of Water Transport in Concrete Completed Using X-ray Computed Tomography

Transport in Porous Media - This paper describes a novel methodology for quantitative in-situ moisture measurement without tracking agents using X-ray computed tomography (XCT). The high levels of...     

Investigation of Post-Darcy Flow in Thin Porous Media

Transport in Porous Media - We present numerical simulations of post-Darcy flow in thin porous medium: one consisting of staggered arrangements of circular cylinders and one random distribution of...     

Investigation of the Relative Motion of a Viscous Fluid and a Porous Medium Using the Brinkman Equations

Exact solutions are obtained for the following three problems in which the Brinkman filtration equations are used: laminar fluid flow between parallel plane walls, one of which is rigid while the other is a plane layer of saturated porous medium, motion of a plane porous layer between parallel layers of viscous fluid, and laminar fluid flow in a cylindrical channel bounded by an annular porous layer.     

Experimental Investigation of Transient Thermal Convection in Porous Media

A laboratory experiment of transient thermal convection in a 1-m-high cell was conducted to compare the length and time scales of plume development to theory. The temperature field was resolved to less than 1 mm and was measured by dissolving a solution of thermochromic crystals into the water–glycerin working fluid. The time-dependent experiment was run by applying heat at the bottom boundary that eventually was \(6\,^\circ \) C above the background temperature of the fluid. After development of a thermal boundary layer, the instability became visible at 26 min, with the development of 11, 3–4 cm width plumes growing from the boundary layer. The initially rapid growth rate reached a limiting velocity of approximately 0.5 cm min \(^{-1}\) , and then decelerated throughout the experiment. Plumes interacted primarily by merging together; by the end of the experiment only three plumes were present. The Nusselt number at the onset of convection was 10, although it dropped to 4 after 45 min, which would be expected of a barely unstable system.     

Fast Tracking of Fluid Invasion Using Time-Resolved Neutron Tomography

Water flow in a sandstone sample is studied during an experiment in situ in a neutron tomography setup. In this paper, a projection-based methodology for fast tracking of the imbibition front in 3D is presented. The procedure exploits each individual neutron 2D radiograph, instead of the tomographic-reconstructed images, to identify the 4D (space and time) saturation field, offering a much higher time resolution than more standard reconstruction-based methods. Based on strong space and time regularizations of the fluid flow, with an a priori defined space and time shape functions, the front shape is identified at each projection time step. This procedure aiming at a fast tracking the fluid advance is explored through two examples. The first one shows that the fluid motion that occurs during one single 180\(^{^{\circ }}\) scan can be resolved at 5 Hz with a sub-pixel accuracy whereas it cannot be unraveled with plain tomographic reconstruction. The second example is composed of 42 radiographs acquired all along a complete fluid invasion in the sample. This experiment uses the very same approach with the additional difficulty of large fluid displacement in between two projections. As compared to the classical approach based on full reconstructions at each invasion stage, the proposed methodology in the studied examples is roughly 300 times faster offering an enhanced time resolution.     

Experimental Investigation and Modelling of Colloidal Release in Porous Media

Gas production from underground storage reservoirs is sometimes associated with solid particles eroded from the rock matrix. This phenomenon often called sand production can cause damage to the storage equipments, leading the operator to choke the wells and prevent them from producing at full capacity. Colloid release is often associated as a precursor of larger solid production. Indeed, in sandstone storage sites, clay release induced by the presence of condensed water associated with the gas production in the near-wellbore region can be a forecast of intergranular cement erosion. The objective of this work is twofold: firstly to experimentally investigate colloidal particle detachment through ionic strength reduction (absence of salinity of the condensed water) in porous media and secondly to determine its evolution with time and to model it. Laboratory experiments with model systems are developed to reproduce the particle generation and their transport in porous media. The model porous medium is a packed column of two powders: silicon carbide particles of 50 μm and silica particles of 0.5 μm (3% by weight) initially mixed together. Brine flows at different concentrations are imposed through the porous sample and, at very low salt concentration, colloid silica particles are massively released from the medium. Experimental evolutions of the particle concentration with time are compared to solutions of the advection–dispersion equation including first-order source terms for colloid release. The dispersion coefficients of the porous medium have been determined with tracer tests. The experimental results exhibit a different behaviour at short- and long-time intervals and a model has been built to predict the colloid production evolution with the introduction of two different time scales for the eroded rate. The model can be used in a core test to evaluate the amount of detachable fines and the rate of erosion.     

Modeling of Single Porous Char Particle Gasification in Supercritical Water

A deep understanding of the gasification behavior of porous char particle is the premise of the reactor-scale modeling, but there are few studies on the gasification characteristics in supercritical water. Thus, a numerical model for porous char particle gasification in supercritical water was developed in this work, and the effects of particle size, inflow temperature and inflow velocity were studied. Simulation results showed that gasification of the small particle of 0.1 mm lay in zone I regime where the particle radius kept unchanged due to uniform reactions inside the particle and the effectiveness factor increased rapidly after the gasification began due to easy accessibility of supercritical water into the particle. The gasification of the large particle of 1 mm showed typical characteristics in zone II regime that the particle began to shrink at a certain conversion degree, and smaller effectiveness factor was observed due to larger supercritical water concentration gradient inside the particle. As the increase of temperature and particle size, ambient fluid became difficult to flow through the unreacted core, and the Stefan flow was observed to obviously modify the hydrodynamic boundary layer at low Reynolds number. Besides, it is unreasonable to assume isothermal particle for gasification with large particle and high temperature because of the significantly overestimated particle consumption rate.

     

Porosity Imaging in Porous Media Using Synchrotron Tomographic Techniques

This paper describes novel uses of synchrotron radiation in examining porosity distributions within porous media. Tomographic energy dispersive diffraction imaging and Tomographic X-ray fluorescence have been combined within one measurement method and used to highlight the porosity distribution in a typical sample of English Chalk.     

泡沫铝制备过程中铝液渗流的模拟试验研究

根据相似原理对铝液在多孔介质中的低压向上渗流过程进行了模拟试验研究。试验表明:渗流液面以平面沿铅垂方向推进,并满足四次方根规律;某一时刻t的雷诺数、阻力系数和沿程损失可用相应的公式计算;外加渗流气压的最佳值为0.40at。实验还将模拟充填时间与原型充填时间进了对比,两者得到了良好的一致性。     

Investigation of Hydrodynamic Dispersion and Intra-pore Turbulence Effects in Porous Media

Transport in Porous Media - The aim of the present paper is to evaluate and compare the pore level hydrodynamic dispersion and effects of turbulence during flow in porous media. In order to compute...     

Controlling Chaos in Porous Media Convection by Using Feedback Control

A method of using feedback control to promote or suppress the transition to chaos in porous media convection is demonstrated in this article. A feedback control suggested by Mahmud and Hashim (Transp Porous Media, doi:10.1007/s11242-009-9511-1, 2010) is used in the present article to provide a comparison between an analytical expression for the transition point to chaos and numerical results. In addition, it is shown that such a feedback control can be applied as an excellent practical means for controlling (suppressing or promoting) chaos by using a transformation made by Magyari (Transp Porous Media, doi:10.1007/s11242-009-9511-1, 2010). The latter shows that Mahmud and Hashim (Transp Porous Media, doi:10.1007/s11242-009-9511-1, 2010) model can be transformed into Vadasz-Olek’s model (Transp Porous Media 37(1):69–91, 1999a) through a simple transformation of variables implying that the main effect the feedback control has on the solution is equivalent to altering the initial conditions. The theoretical and practical significance of such an equivalent alteration of the initial conditions is presented and discussed.     

The Alternative Model of Water Vapour Sorption in Porous Building Materials

Mathematical modelling of water sorption in porous building materials is considered. The explanations of inadequacies of both Brunauer?CDeming?CDeming?CTeller model for the high relative humidities range and Frenkel?CHalsey?CHill model for the low relative humidities range reported by Pavlík et?al. (Transp. Porous Med. 91:939?C954, 2012) are proposed. The generalized D??Arcy and Watt (GDW) model is proposed as a simpler alternative for a procedure of experimental isotherms fitting proposed by Pavlík et?al. The suitability of the GDW equation to describe the water sorption isotherms in the building materials for the whole range of relative humidities is confirmed.