Optimizing experimental design for coupled porous media flow studies

It is important in specific cases to know if and when coupling occurs during the flow of immiscible fluids in and through porous media. Unless special laboratory design precautions are taken, however, even small errors in the measurement of the experimental variables can adversely camouflage the very effects that are under investigation. Here a novel remedy is proposed that involves the use of a least squares optimization algorithm for the selection of the most favorable constraint conditions to be imposed.     

Constructal Design of Vascular Porous Materials and Electrokinetic Mass Transfer

According to constructal theory, the “generation of flow configuration” is a universal phenomenon in physics. This phenomenon is covered by the constructal law: “For a finite-size flow system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve such that it provides greater and greater access to the currents that flow through it.” This paper shows how the constructal law can be used to (1) predict and explain features of “design” in nature, and (2) design effective strategies and configurations for engineering. Many natural flow designs rely on two flow mechanisms: channels with relatively low resistivity, interwoven with diffusion across the interstices. The “design” is the balance between the two mechanisms. The flow from line to line (or plane to plane) through a sufficiently fine porous medium encounters less resistance than the flow through parallel channels when it is configured as trees that alternate with upside down trees: from this follows the prediction that natural porous media (e.g., hill slope) should be multiscale (bidisperse) and non-uniformly distributed. A porous medium contaminated with ionic species is decontaminated the fastest when the ionic flow is configured as two flow mechanisms in balance: “channeling” driven by potential differences between optimally positioned electrodes, and diffusion driven by concentration differences across the interstices between the channels.     

多孔介质输运性质的分形分析研究进展

首先对多孔介质输运性质的传统实验测量、解析分析和数值模拟计算研究进展作了扼要的评述.然后,着重综述采用分形理论和方法研究多孔介质输运性质分析解的理论、方法和所取得的进展.最后,指出采用分形理论和方法有可能解决其它尚未解决的有关多孔介质输运性质的若干课题和方向.      

Modeling species transport by concentrated brine in aggregated porous media

Basic equations governing the transport of species by concentrated brine flowing through an aggregated porous medium are developed. Some simple examples are solved numerically. The medium is considered to be composed of porous rock aggregates separated by ‘macropores’ through which the brine flows and transport of salt and low-concentration species takes place. The aggregates contain dead-end pores, cracks, and stationary pockets collectively called ‘micropores’. The micropore space does not contribute to the flow, but it serves as a storage for salt and species. Adsorption of fluid species takes place at internal surface of aggregates where it is assumed that a linear equilibrium isotherm describes the process. The effects of high salt concentrations are accounted for in the brine density relation, the viscosity relation, Darcy's and Fick's laws, and the rate of mass transfer between macropores and micropores. Mass balance equations, supplemented by extended forms of Darcy's and Fick's laws, are employed to arrive at two sets of equations. One set consists of seven coupled equations for the salt mass fraction and fluid density in macropores, salt mass fraction in micropores, fluid velocity vector, and the fluid pressure. The other set consists of two coupled equations to be solved for the mass fractions of low-concentration species in micropores and macropores. Based on these equations, a mathematical model called TORISM is developed. Using this model, the potential significance of modifications to Darcy's Law are demonstrated.     

Advective fluxes in multiphase porous media under nonisothermal conditions

We consider the case in which more than one fluid phase occupies the void space of a porous medium. The advective flux law is formulated for a fluid phase, under nonisothermal conditions and with the presence of solutes in the fluid phases. The derivation of the flux laws is based on an approximated version of the averaged balance equation for linear momentum. Taking into account momentum transfer through the interface between the fluid phases, leads to coupling between the flow in adjacent phases. Fluxes are also shown to depend on the surface tension at the interface between the adjacent fluid phases. Since the latter depends on temperature and solute concentration in the two phases, the advective flux is shown to depend on both temperature and solute concentration gradients in the two phases. A preliminary order of magnitude analysis gives conditions under which the coupling phenomena are not negligible. The approach is applied to the unsaturated zone, as a typical example of a multiphase porous medium.The main conclusion is that the well known Darcy law for single phase flow, may have to be modified for a multi fluid phase system, especially when temperature and solute concentration are not uniform.     

Matrix and fissure water movement through unsaturated calcareous sandstone

Evaluation of pollution endangering groundwater resources beneath fractured sediments may be achieved by estimating the transport rates and recharge amounts of both the matrix and the fissure components. This study examines the transport of water by matrix and fissure flow in the unsaturated zone using environmental tritium as a natural tracer. A 35-year record of tritium concentration along 40 m calcareous sandstone column was reconstructed. It was found that on the average, 40 mm yr¹ (8% of the yearly rain) percolated downward through the matrix pores at a velocity of 1.1 m yr¹. An additional amount of more than 20 mm yr¹ (more 4% of the rains) percolated rapidly through fissure network. These field data fit and support the model proposed by Wang and Narashimham (1985) that the bulk of the water movement under unsaturated conditions occurs through interconnected pores in the matrix.     

On Analytical Solutions of Advective Transport by Infiltration–Redistribution Gravitational Flow

Contaminant transport in the upper layers of soil during the multiple cycles of short infiltration and prolonged redistribution is investigated. Analytical solutions for the two typical problems encountered in agricultural engineering are derived. The first problem considers the penetration of fertilizer initially applied at the soil surface. The second one is the propagation of contaminant injected with the applied water. Explicit analytical expressions for the solute concentration are obtained under assumptions of one-dimensional gravitational flow and advective solute transport under equilibrium conditions. The properties of the solute penetration are analyzed for the case of contaminant initially applied at the soil surface and picked up by the water flow during ten infiltration–redistribution cycles. P. Indelman - (deceased)     

Compressibility and anisotropy effects in the processes of two-phase flow through a porous medium

Functions of the relative phase permeabilities which take into account the tensor nature of the relations between the absolute and phase permeabilities are constructed on the basis of experimental data. Problems of the displacement of gas by water and of water by gas in an orthotropic pore space are studied. The relative phase permeabilities obtained are compared with functions that depend only on the local saturation. The effect of the phase compressibility and the anisotropy of the absolute permeability tensor is considered.     

An Analytical Solution to the One-Dimensional Solute Advection-Dispersion Equation in Multi-Layer Porous Media

An analytical solution to the one-dimensional solute advection-dispersion equation in multi-layer porous media is derived using a generalized integral transform method. The solution was derived under conditions of steady-state flow and arbitrary initial and inlet boundary conditions. The results obtained by this solution agree well with the results obtained by numerically inverting Laplace transform-generated solutions previously published in the literature. The analytical solution presented in this paper provides more flexibility with regard to the inlet conditions. The numerical evaluation of eigenvalues and matrix exponentials required in this solution technique can be accurately and efficiently computed using the sign-count method and eigenvalue evaluation methods commonly available. The illustrative calculations presented herein have shown how an analytical solution can provide insight into contaminant distribution and breakthrough in transport through well defined layered column systems. We also note that the method described here is readily adaptable to two and three-dimensional transport problems.     

Measuring transport coefficients necessary for the description of coupled two-phase flow of immiscible fluids in porous media

In the simplist cases of coupled two-phase flow of immiscible fluids in porous media, the governing equations usually are written to show that there are four independent transport coefficients that implicitly have to be separately measured. The analysis presented here accordingly indicates that two types of known experiments involving two measurements apiece are needed at each fluid saturation condition in order to provide the necessary and sufficient information by which the unsteady as well as the steady states of ensuing transport processes can be established and characterized. Apparently, however, the fact that methodologies are already available for the required laboratory work either is not widely appreciated or it is being overlooked. For this reason and others, mention is made of the surprising fact that the experimental difficulties to be confronted in the actual study of coupled transport processes are no greater than those that have already been dealt with by the advocates of classical relative permeability theory (i.e. the traditionalists who simplistically model two-phase flow as though no coupling effects are involved).     

Conditional Stochastic Analysis for Multiphase Trsnsport in Randomly Heterogeneous,variably Saturated Media

Groundwater contamination of organics has recently become a problem of growing concern over the resulting health and environmental problems. In general, the multiphase system of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL), water and air has to be studied in order to realistically describe the movement of such materials in the subsurface. Numerous models have been developed to study multiphase flow and/or multispecies transport in porous media. However, using models to study the influence of medium heterogeneity on such flow and transport is only a recent event. It has been demonstrated for single-phase flow and transport in saturated and unsaturated media that the study of medium heterogeneity is amenable to stochastic analysis. In this paper, we extend our Eulerian–Lagrangian stochastic theory for single-phase transport to the problem of multiphase–multispecies transport in randomly heterogeneous media under the conditions that the flow is steady-state and the phases are in local chemical equilibrium. We present theoretical expressions to describe the first two conditional moments of the random concentration of any species in any phase. Though they reveal some of the fundamental properties and help gaining insight into the nature of the problem, these expressions cannot be evaluated without either high resolution Monte Carlo simulation or approximation (closure). Therefore, we propose two sets of workable approximations, one being a weak approximation and the other being a linearized pseudo-Fickian approximation. The former yields a nonlinear integro-differential equation for the first conditional moment and the latter yields a linear differential equation. Then the second moments can be computed from explicit expressions from either the weak or pseudo-Fickian approximation.     

Transport of Multi-Electrolytes in Charged Hydrated Biological Soft Tissues

A mechano-electrochemical theory for charged hydrated soft tissues with multi-electrolytes was developed based on the continuum mixture theory. The momentum equations for water and ions were derived in terms of a mechanochemical force (gradient of water chemical potential), electrochemical forces (gradient of Nernst potentials) and an electrical force (gradient of electrical potential). The theory was shown to be consistent with all existing specialized theories. Using this theory, some mechano-electrokinetic properties of charged isotropic tissues were studied. The well-known Hodgkin–Huxley equation for resting cell membrane potential was derived and the phenomenon of electro-osmotic flow in charged hydrated soft tissues was investigated. Analyses show that the tissue fixed charge density plays an important role in controlling the transport of water and ions in charged hydrated soft tissues.     

Dispersion Phenomena in Thermal Diffusion and Modelling of Thermogravitational Experiments in Porous Media

In a TIPM paper published in 1992, the authors presented a simple model of thermogravitational diffusion in packed columns (TPC). Though qualitatively in agreement with the experimental results, this model exhibited a systematic discrepancy with respect to the magnitude of the permeability of maximum separation in the TPC experiments. Here, the results of a re-examination of the classical phenomenology of irreversible thermodynamics in porous media, applied to TPC, are described. Through the interpretation of additional TPC experiments, we show that the effective thermal diffusion coefficient in TPC includes a dependency upon the fluid velocity. This dependency is consistent with a nonlinear extension of irreversible thermodynamics, and the model so amended accounts for a correct re-interpretation of the experiments.     

On impulsive processes

Consider impulsive processes that consists of between two impulses non-autonomous, non-linear continuous processes subjected to time-varying impulsive constraints. By extending compact processes defined by Dafermos for non-autonomous systems without impulses, a class of regular impulsive processes is provided and its applications are stressed by selected examples. A weak invariance principle and an invariance principle are established for the regular impulsive processes. The paper thus lays ground work for geometric theory of general impulsive processes.     

Review on Scale Dependent Characterization of the Microstructure of Porous Media

The paper discusses local porosity theory and its relation with other geometric characterization methods for porous media such as correlation functions and contact distributions. Special emphasis is placed on the charcterization of geometric observables through Hadwigers theorem in stochastic geometry. The four basic Minkowski functionals are introduced into local porosity theory, and for the first time a relationship is established between the Euler characteristic and the local percolation probabilities. Local porosity distributions and local percolation probabilities provide a scale dependent characterization of the microstructure of porous media that can be used in an effective medium approach to predict transport.     

渗流力学研究的现状和发展趋势

渗流力学在能源、环境、水利、岩土、交通、生物等工程领域有广泛的应用,渗流力学经过约一个半世纪的发展,已经积累了相当多的成果。随着现代科学的发展以及生产实践需求的不断提高,渗流力学仍然有进一步完善和发展的广阔空间。本文简述了水利、环境、能源工程和生物学中的渗流力学问题,扼要概括了渗流力学理论研究的现状,并指出渗流力学在多孔介质描述、裂缝型介质渗流、多相多组分渗流、物理化学渗流、非线性渗流、非饱和渗流、微观渗流、渗流模拟等理论及相关方法和测试技术等方面的发展趋势。     

Efficient Lagrangian scalar tracking method for reactive local mass transport simulation through porous media

Mass transfer in the presence of chemical reactions for flows through porous media is of interest to many disciplines. The Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is particularly attractive in such cases due to the ease with which it handles complicated boundary conditions. However, useful Lagrangian information (such as solute survival distance, effective diffusivity, collision frequency) is challenging to obtain from the LBM. In this paper, we present a straightforward and efficient Lagrangian methodology (Lagrangian scalar tracking, LST) for performing solute transport simulations in the presence of heterogeneous, first‐order, irreversible reactions, based on a velocity field obtained from LBM. The hybrid LST/LBM technique tracks passive mass markers that have two contributions to their movement: convective (obtained through interpolation of a previously obtained velocity field) and Brownian. Various Schmidt number solutes and different solute release modes can be modeled with a single solvent flow field using this method. Moreover, the mass markers can have a range of reaction rate coefficients. This allows for the exploration of the whole spectrum of first‐order heterogeneous reaction rates with just a single simulation. In order to show the applicability of the LST/LBM scheme, results from a case study are presented in which the consumption of oxygen and/or nutrients within a porous bone tissue engineering scaffold is modeled under flow perfusion culturing conditions. Although the reactive LST methodology described in this paper compliments the LBM, it can also be used with any other flow simulation that can generate the velocity field. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Propagation of acceleration waves in incompressible saturated porous solids

Within the framework of the incompressible porous media model, the propagation properties of acceleration waves in liquid-filled porous solids is discussed. The incompressibility of the two constituents in the model forces the amplitudes of the longitudinal waves in the skeleton and in the liquid to satisfy a certain relation. The two propagation speeds are presented by examination for the existence of acceleration waves and only longitudinal and transverse waves are realizable in the incompressible two-phase porous materials.     

Experiments on Solute Transport in Aggregated Porous Media: Are Diffusions Within Aggregates and Hydrodynamic Dispersion Independent?

Two region models for solute transport in porous media assume that hydrodynamic dispersion in mobile water and solute diffusion within immobile water regions are independent. Experimental and theoretical results for transport through a macropore indicate that hydrodynamic dispersion and solute exchange are interdependent. Experiments were carried out to investigate this problem for a column packed with spherical porous aggregates. The effective diffusion coefficient of a tracer within the agreggates was determined from specific experiments. The dispersivity of the bed was determined from experiments carried out with a column filled with nonporous beads. We took advantage of the dependence of hydrodynamic dispersion on density ratios between the invading and displaced solutions to obtain a set of breakthrough curves corresponding to situations where the diffusion coefficient remains constant, whereas the dispersivity varies. Simulations reproduce correctly the experiments. Small discrepancies are noted that can be corrected either by increasing the dispersion coefficient or by fitting the external mass transfer coefficient. Increased dispersion coefficients probably reveal a modification of Taylor dispersion due to solute exchange. The fitted external mass transfer coefficients are close to the values obtained with classical correlations of the chemical engineering literature.