Properties of certain phase transition fronts in geothermal porous reservoirs

The properties of equilibrium steam-water mixture — water(steam) phase transition fronts in porous heat-conducting media are investigated in the one-dimensional formulation. The number of necessary boundary conditions on the front (evolutionarity), the direction of propagation of the front with respect to the porous medium, the type of phase transition (evaporation or condensation), and the thermodynamic contradiction in the zone occupied by the pure phase (water or steam) are determined as functions of the parameters of the medium.Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Academii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6, 2004, pp. 133–144. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Kondrashov.     

Phase discontinuities in water flows through a porous medium

Flow of a fluid through a porous medium is considered with allowance for heat conduction processes and phase transitions. Discontinuities in flows between both single-phase zones saturated with water and steam and single-and two-phase zones saturated with an equilibrium steam-water mixture are studied. It is shown that only the evaporation fronts are evolutionary for a convex-downward shock adiabat of the discontinuity inside the steam-water mixture. The structure of these fronts is considered and a condition supplementary to the conservation laws and necessary for the well-posed formulation of problems whose solution contains this front is found from the condition of existence of a discontinuity structure between the water (steam) and the steam-water mixture.     

Flow from the Soil Surface into a Fractured Porous Aeration Zone

The one-dimensional problem of the contamination of a fractured porous aeration zone as a result of a fast spill of fluid over the soil surface is investigated. The block capillary imbibition rate is approximated with allowance for the experimental data. An analytic dependence describing the trajectory of the leading contamination front is obtained and the depth of penetration of the spill into the soil is found. The block contamination profile is determined.     

Hydrodynamic and Thermal Fields in a Porous Medium with Injection of Superheated Steam

The plane one-dimensional and radially symmetric problems of injection of superheated steam into a porous medium saturated with gas are considered. Self-similar solutions are constructed on the assumption that in this case four zones are formed in the porous medium, namely, a gas flow zone, superheated and wet steam zones, and a water slug zone formed due to steam condensation. On the basis of the solution obtained, both the effects of the boundary pressure, mass flow rate, and temperature of the injected superheated steam and the effect of the initial state of the porous medium on the propagation of the hydrodynamic and thermal fields in the porous medium are studied.     

Numerical Investigation of the Second Transition in the Problem of Plane Convective Flow through a Porous Medium

The problem of convective flow through a porous medium in a plane rectangular vessel with a linear temperature profile steadily maintained on the boundary is considered. Single-parameter families of steady-state regimes resulting from the existence of cosymmetry of the corresponding differential equations are investigated using the Galerkin method. The onset and development of instability on these families and the characteristics of convective regimes as functions of the seepage Rayleigh number and the rectangle side ratio are studied. It is shown that the number of regimes which lose stability, the instability type, the number of convective rollers developed, and the heat transfer depend significantly on the vessel geometry. Several bifurcations of single-parameter families of steady-state regimes are identified and investigated.     

Asymptotic Analysis of the Joining of an Ice-Rock Body in Flow Through Porous Media

The problem of determining the equilibrium configuration of a plane, doubly connected ice-rock body formed about a system of two freezing columns traversing a flow through a porous medium is asymptotically analyzed in the limit of small Péclet numbers. Two terms of the asymptotic expansion are retained. It is shown that in this approximation the criterion of joining of the doubly connected body coincides with the criterion of non-disjoining of the simply connected body. However, the solution structure is such that taking the third asymptotic term into account can lead to a second solution when the ice-rock body is close to joining. This means that the size of the joining-disjoining hysteresis loop is of at least the second order in the Péclet number.     

Permanent Fronts in Two-Phase Flows in a Porous Medium

A family of exact solutions for a model of a one-dimensional horizontal flow of two immiscible, incompressible fluids in a porous medium, including the effects of capillary pressure, is obtained analytically by solving the governing singular parabolic nonlinear diffusion equation. Each solution has the form of a permanent front propagating with a constant velocity. It is shown that, for every propagation velocity, there exists a set of permanent fronts all of which are moving with this velocity in an inflowing wetting–outflowing non-wetting flow configuration. Global bifurcations of this set, with the front velocity as a bifurcation parameter, are investigated analytically and numerically in detail in the case when the permeabilities and the capillary pressure are linear functions of the wetting phase saturation. Main results for the nonlinear Brooks–Corey model are also presented. In both models three global bifurcations occur. By using a geometric dynamical system approach, the nonlinear stability of the permanent fronts is established analytically. Based on the permanent front solutions, an interpretation of the dynamics of an arbitrary front of finite extent in the model is given as follows. The instantaneous upstream (downstream) velocity of an arbitrary non-quasistationary front is equal to the velocity of a permanent front whose shape coincides up to two leading orders with the instantaneous shape of the non-quasistationary front at the upstream (respectively, downstream) location. The upstream and downstream locations of the front undergo instantaneous translations governed by modified nonsingular hyperbolic equations. The portion of the front in between these locations undergoes a diffusive redistribution governed by a nonsingular nonlinear parabolic diffusion equation. We have proposed a numerical approach based on a parabolic–hyperbolic domain decomposition for computing non-quasistationary fronts.     

Hydrodynamic Effects in Two-Phase Multicomponent Mixture Flow through a Porous Medium in Oil Reservoirs with a Complex Structure

The features of the hydrodynamic processes in stratified inhomogeneous oil reservoirs are investigated using a numerical solution of the equations of two-phase multicomponent flow through a porous medium. The structures of the two-phase flows caused by the reservoir structure and the hydrodynamic interaction between the phases are analyzed in relation to problems of the displacement of oil by water in ordinary flooding and in the presence of moving thickener slugs.     

Boiling in Porous Media: Model and Simulations

We present a modelization of the heat and mass transfers within a porous medium, which takes into account phase transitions. Classical equations are derived for the mass conservation equation, whereas the equation of energy relies on an entropy balance adapted to the case of a rigid porous medium. The approximation of the solution is obtained using a finite volume scheme coupled with the management of phase transitions. This model is shown to apply in the case of an experiment of heat generation in a porous medium. The vapor phase appearance is well reproduced by the simulations, and the size of the two-phase region is correctly predicted. A result of this study is the evidence of the discrepancy between the air – water capillary and relative permeability curves and water – water vapor ones.     

Representation of the Functions of the Relative Phase Permeabilities for Anisotropic Porous Media

The most general representation of the functions of the relative phase permeabilities for porous media is written explicitly. The relations proposed for the relative phase permeabilities generalize those obtained earlier for media with transversely-isotropic and orthotropic percolation properties [1, 2] which can now be obtained as a particular case. A laboratory measurement technique for finding the percolation properties and determining the absolute and phase permeabilities for media with different types of anisotropy is discussed.__________Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Academii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, 2005, pp. 118–125.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Dmitriev, Dmitriev, and Maksimov.     

Influence of Adsorption and Desorption of Gas Micronuclei on the Nature of the Flow of a Gassy Liquid through a Porous Medium

The problem of gassy liquid flow through a porous medium is considered theoretically. Periodic oscillations of the liquid and gas flow rate observed experimentally are attributable to the processes of sorption and desorption of gas micronuclei on the walls of the pore space and their diffusion. In the kinetic equation employed the desorption rate is directly proportional to the adsorbed micronucleus concentration and the seepage rate, and the adsorption rate is directly proportional to the product of the mobile micronucleus concentration and the free site concentration on the pore surfaces. Steady-state solutions of this equation are investigated. It is shown that periodic oscillations of the flow rate can manifest themselves only when the processes of micronuclei adsorption predominate over the desorption processes.     

Generalized Darcy's Law and the Structure of the Phase and Relative Phase Permeabilities for Two-Phase Flows through Anisotropic Porous Media

For two-phase immiscible fluid flows a generalized Darcy's law is written in invariant tensor form for crystallographic point symmetry groups and anisotropic textures. The representation of the phase permeability coefficient tensors and the structure of the expressions for the relative phase permeabilities are analyzed for all symmetry groups. The relation between the phase and absolute permeability coefficient tensors is specified by a fourth-rank tensor with the external symmetry coinciding with external symmetry of the phase permeability tensors. It is shown that the external symmetry of the phase permeability coefficient tensors can differ from the external symmetry of the absolute permeability tensor. For triclinic and monoclinic symmetry groups it is shown that the phase permeability coefficient tensors may not be coaxial with each other and with the absolute permeability tensor; moreover, the directions of the principal axes of the phase permeability coefficient tensors can depend on the saturation.     

Seepage-Diffusion Model of Brine Migration in Inhomogeneous Aquifers

A new phenomenological mathematical model of the propagation of high- and low-salinity solutions through inhomogeneous aquifers is proposed. The model consists of interrelated equations of two-phase flow and diffusive mass transfer through a porous medium in a region with a traveling boundary. Features of different contamination scenarios of are analyzed with reference to particular examples.     

Phase Transitions in Flow through a Heat-Conducting Porous Skeleton

The features of one-dimensional seepage flows of a medium in the form of a liquid, vapor, or liquid-vapor mixture are considered. It is assumed that the temperatures of the medium and the porous skeleton through which it flows are determined both by the heat-conduction processes in the skeleton and the medium and by the phase transitions of the medium (evaporation or condensation). The phase transition fronts and their structure are investigated for a pure medium, i.e., a liquid or vapor but not a mixture, no at least one side of the front. Moreover, the possible existence of a form of flow, not considered earlier, in which in a certain region of space the thermodynamic state of the particles belongs to the phase transition interface between the pure state and the mixture. The flows are considered in general form without specifying the properties of the medium.     

Effect of vibration on the stability of a plane displacement front in a porous medium

The effect of linearly polarized vibration on the stability of a plane displacement front in a porous medium is studied. The problem of the stability of the motion of a plane displacement front traveling at a constant velocity U under the action of vibration normal to the front is considered. It is shown that under the action of vibration the dynamics of the plane displacement front can be described by the Mathieu equation with a dissipative term. Using the standard averaging method, in the case of high-frequency vibration it is revealed that vibration can only increase the stability of the system. It is found that the vibration stabilizes the plane displacement front with respect to part of the perturbation spectrum.     

Self-similar solutions of the problem of formation of a hydraulic fracture in a porous medium

The problem of hydraulic fracture formation in a porous medium is investigated in the approximation of small fracture opening and inertialess incompressible Newtonian fluid fracture flow when the seepage through the fracture walls into the surrounding reservoir is asymptotically small or large. It is shown that the system of equations describing the propagation of the fracture has self-similar solutions of power-law or exponential form only. A family of self-similar solutions is constructed in order to determine the evolution of the fracture width and length, the fluid velocity in the fracture, and the length of fluid penetration into the porous medium when either the fluid flow rate or the pressure as a power-law or exponential function of time is specified at the fracture entrance. In the case of finite fluid penetration into the soil the system of equations has only a power-law self-similar solution, for example, when the fluid flow rate is specified at the fracture entrance as a quadratic function of time. The solutions of the self-similar equations are found numerically for one of the seepage regimes.     

Radiative Effect on Natural Convection Flows in Porous Media

A regular two-parameter perturbation analysis based upon the boundary layer approximation is presented here to study the radiative effects of both first- and second-order resistances due to a solid matrix on the natural convection flows in porous media. Four different flows have been studied, those adjacent to an isothermal surface, a uniform heat flux surface, a plane plume and the flow generated from a horizontal line energy source on a vertical adiabatic surface. The first-order perturbation quantities are presented for all these flows. Numerical results for the four conditions with various radiation parameters are tabulated.     

Simulation of the Effect of Water Injection on Volcanic Conduit Flow

The effect on the eruption process of water or steam injection into a volcanic conduit from an adjacent water-saturated stratum is studied. Both steady-state and unsteady processes are considered. The physical characteristics of these eruptions are identified. A mathematical model of such an eruption is proposed for the first time.     

Transient Film Condensation on a Vertical Plate Imbedded in Porous Medium

The present paper introduces a mathematical model that simulates the transient film condensation on a vertical plate imbedded in a porous medium. In this model, the Brinkman-extended Darcy model is adopted and the local macroscopic inertial term is included. Analytical solutions are presented that describe the transient behavior of the condensate film thickness, condensate mass flow rate and heat transfer coefficient. The current results show the effect of the permeability of the porous material on several issues including the velocity profiles, the film thickness and the time required to reach steady state conditions.     

Convective Flows on Reactive Surfaces in Porous Media

A model for the convective flow in a fluidsaturated porous medium containing a reactive component is considered. This component undergoes an exothermic reaction (modelled by a first order mechanism) on an impermeable bounding surface, the resulting heat released driving the convective flow. Large Rayleigh number flow near a stagnation point is treated in detail by first considering the steady states. Multiple solution branches and critical points arising from a hysteresis bifurcation are identified. The form that these solution branches take depends on whether or not the effects of reactant consumption are included. An initialvalue problem is then discussed. This shows that both the lower (slow reaction) and upper (fast reaction) solution branches are stable (and the ultimate state of the system). When the parameter values are such that there is no steady state, the solution develops a finitetime singularity, the nature of which is analysed.