Influence of Macro-pores on DNAPL Migration in Double-Porosity Soil Using Light Transmission Visualization Method

Double porosity is a substantial microstructure characteristic in a wide range of geomaterials. It is a natural phenomenon that can be found in many types of soil, and it can result from biological, chemical or mechanical damage. In this paper, the influence of macro-pores on dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) migration in double-porosity medium was investigated using light transmission visualization technique. Three experiments were carried out in two-dimensional flow chambers filled with a double-porosity medium composed of a mixture of local sand and sintered kaolin clay spheres arranged in a periodic manner. In each experiment, a different volumetric fraction of macro-pores and micropores was used. Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was used to simulate DNAPL, and it was dyed using Oil-Red-O for better visualization. A predetermined amount of PCE was injected into the flow chambers and this amount was re-calculated using image analysis. A very strong correlation was found between the PCE amount injected and the amount calculated from image analysis in each experiment. The experiment was repeated by filling the flow chamber with silica sand to represent single-porosity medium. The results show that the macro-pores have a considerable effect on the PCE migration in double-porosity soil as the PCE movement was the fastest in the third experiment which contained the largest macro-pores volume. The accuracy of the method was validated using statistical analysis. The results show a slight difference between the means of the three experiments, indicating that the method is viable for monitoring NAPL migration in double-porosity medium under different volumetric fractions of macro-pores and micropores.     

Experimental validation of distinct element simulation for dynamic wheel–soil interaction

The deformation behaviour of the soil during dynamic wheel–soil interaction was studied by using the discontinuum modelling technique, distinct or discrete element method (DEM). The simulation model was developed using DEM for two types of soil, soil-A (coarse sand) and soil-B (medium sand). A transparent sided soil bin was used to observe the soil deformation. Three CCD video camera photographic images of the validation experiments were analyzed and compared with the simulation program results.This paper presents the simulation and validation results for two types of soil at three different vertical loadings of 4.9, 9.8 and 14.7 N. Wheel sinkage, vertical and horizontal draft force acting on the rigid wheel and the soil deformation images from the validation experiments were some of the data used to compare the simulation program results with the validation experiments. The simulation program was helpful to understand the complex deformation behaviour of the soils. The simulated results for the deformation behaviour of soil-B showed better correlation with the validation experiments than soil-A. The results obtained have also been compared with the previous work on DEM to explain phenomena such as the high simulated sinkage of the rigid wheel.     

Transport of Lead (Pb<Superscript>2+</Superscript>) Ions Through Silty-Clayey Soils Under Acidic Conditions

This study aimed to identify effects of pH on the transport of Pb²⁺ ions through a saturated silty-clayey soil layer by using advection–dispersion equation (ADE). The predictive accuracy of the solution of ADE depends on the proper determination of the retardation by adsorption and, therefore, the adsorption mechanism of lead onto silty-clayey soil was investigated first by performing batch equilibrium experiments. These results showed that the sorption mechanism of lead onto silty-clayey soil depended on pH and could be best described by the Langmuir isotherm. Based on the results of the sequential experiments, it was also concluded that the pH dependent charges in silty-clayey soil were mainly associated with the surfaces of carbonates and the specific adsorption of lead ions. The numerical solutions of the combined form of ADE with the Langmuir isotherm indicated that the migration profiles of lead in silty-clayey soil were a strong function of the parameters of the Langmuir isotherm rather than the infiltration velocity.     

Reflection and Transmission of Plane Waves at a Water–Porous Sediment Interface with a Double-Porosity Substrate

This paper investigates the wave propagation at the interface between the ocean and the ocean floor. The ocean floor is assumed to be composed of covered porous sediment with an underlying double-porosity substrate. For this purpose, plane wave reflection and transmission in the coupled water–porous sediment–double-porosity substrate system are analytically solved in terms of displacement potentials. Using numerical examples, the effects of the material properties of the underlying double-porosity substrate on the reflection coefficients are discussed in detail. Variations in pore and fracture fluid, fracture volume fraction, and permeability coefficients are considered. In addition, two cases of boundary conditions at the porous sediment–double-porosity substrate interface, i.e., sealed-pore boundary and open-pore boundary, are compared in the numerical calculations. Results show that material property variations in the double-porosity substrate may significantly affect the reflected wave in the overlying water if the sandwiched sediment depth is less than the critical value.     

Surfactant Enhanced In Situ Remediation of LNAPL Contaminated Aquifers: Large Scale Studies on a Controlled Experimental Site

A central problem in a real case remediation of an oil contaminated site is the knowledge of the volume and the extent of the pollution. As the estimation of the mass balance, usually based on some point measurements, presents a large range of uncertainty, controlled experisites constitute essential research tools. The objective of SCERES (Controlled Experimental Site for Water and Soil Remediation Research) is to test techniques for both pollution quantification and in situ remediation of light non–aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) contaminated aquifers and soils. This paper reports results of experiments conducted on the experimental site SCERES and describes two techniques of surfactant flushing for the recovery of trapped diesel oil: an infiltration from the soil surface for the vadoze zone treatment and injections in depth for the capillary fringe treatment.Despite a satisfying mass balance, we underline some complex phenomena which influence the flow of fluids such as surfactants and mobilized oil in saturated and unsaturated porous media, in particular, the effect of surfactant agglomeration on oil removal efficiency. This research work also highlights some problems especially those linked with the confinement of the heterogeneous oil impregnation body.     

Homogenization of Solute Transport in Unsaturated Double-Porosity Media: Model and Numerical Validation

Transport in Porous Media - The development of a macroscopic model for solute transport coupled with unsaturated water flow in double-porosity media is presented in this work, by using the...     

The behavior of naturally fractured reservoirs including fluid flow in matrix blocks

An alternative analytical solution to the system of equations for fluid flow through a double-porosity medium with a boundary condition of an equipotential surface is given in this paper. The problem is reduced to solving an integral equation. The solution is straight-forward, and involves only ordinary Bessel functions. Numerical results show that D, the ratio of matrix system permeability to fracture system permeability, has a strong effect on the two semilog straight lines characteristic of the pressure response in a double-porosity medium. As D increases from zero (the Warren-Root model) to one, the first semilog straight line moves closer to the second. This is similar to the effect of increasing ω, the ratio of storage capacity of the fracture system to total storage capacity, in the Warren-Root model which neglects the flow within matrix blocks.     

各向异性双重介质垂直裂缝井两相流体渗流

建立了各向异性双重介质中垂直裂缝井两相渗流数学模型,用有限差分法求得了其解,进行了算例分析。得到了含水饱和度沿径向、最大及最小渗透率方向的分布和水驱油前缘等饱和度面随时间的变化,分别讨论了各向异性、吸渗作用对这种介质中两相流体渗流的影响。结果表明：渗透率较在的方向,前缘推进速度较快,油井见水较早;吸渗使前缘推进速度减慢,使油井见水晚。注水开发这种油藏时,见水前注入率不能太大以充分发挥吸渗作用,存在最佳注入率。这对于水力压裂垂直裂缝井注水开发碳酸盐岩裂缝性油藏有指导意义。     

Prediction of soil vertical stress under off-road tire using smoothed-particle hydrodynamics

Evaluation of vertical stress distribution in clay-loam soil using Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics-Finite Element Analysis (SPH-FEA) technique is presented in this research. The moist soil is modelled using the hydrodynamic elastic–plastic material and Murnaghan equation of state, while the tire is modelled using FEA in Visual Environment’s Pam-Crash software. Soil-tire interaction is performed using the node symmetric node to segment with edge treatment method. A single-wheel tester in a soil bin environment was utilized to provide experimental data. The objectives of the experimental test were to (1) calculate maximum subsoil stresses in the subsoil at 1 to 15 passes of a wheel with loads of 1, 2, 4, and 5 kN on soil with moisture levels of 0, 10, 17, and 24%.; (2) calibrate soil with different levels of moisture (3) compare predicted soil stresses with experiments. The maximum stress at 20 cm depth increased with increasing soil moisture and also with high levels of tire load. In contrast, successive traffic showed a decreasing effect on soil stress. The coefficient of determination 0.97 shows the predictions agreed very well with experiments. The moist soil-tire interaction model will be further used to analyze the soil stress in different soil depths and different forward velocity.     

Permeability of the Fluid-Filled Inclusions in Porous Media

In this article, we propose an approach to obtain the equivalent permeability of the fluid-filled inclusions embedded into a porous host in which a fluid flow obeys Darcy’s law. The approach consists in the comparison of the solutions for one-particle problem describing the flow inside the inclusion, firstly, by the Stokes equations and then by using Darcy’s law. The results obtained for spheres (3D) and circles (2D) demonstrate that the inclusion equivalent permeability is a function of its radius and, additionally, depends on the host permeability. Based on this definition of inclusion permeability and using effective medium method, we have calculated the effective permeability of the double-porosity medium composed of the permeable matrix (with small scale pores) and large scale secondary spherical pores.     

Reflection and Transmission of Elastic Waves from the Interface of a Fluid-saturated Porous Solid and a Double Porosity Solid

The reflection and transmission characteristics of an incident plane P1 wave from the interface of a fluid-saturated single porous solid and a fluid-saturated double porosity solid are investigated. The fluid-saturated porous solid is modeled with the classic Biot’s theory and the double porosity medium is described by an extended Biot’s theory. In a double-porosity model with dual-permeability there exist three compressional waves and a shear wave. The effects of the incident angle and frequency on amplitude ratios of the reflected and transmitted waves to the incident wave are discussed. Two boundary conditions are discussed in detail: (a) Open-pore boundary and (b) Sealed-pore boundary. Numerical results reveal that the characteristics of the reflection and transmission coefficients to the incident angle and the frequency are quite different for the two cases of boundary conditions. Properties of the bulk waves existing in the fluid-saturated porous solid and the double porosity medium are also studied.     

Upscaled Unstructured Computational Grids for Efficient Simulation of Flow in Fractured Porous Media

Discrete fracture modeling (DFM) is currently the most promising approach for modeling of naturally fractured reservoirs and simulation of multiphase fluid flow therein. In contrast with the classical double-porosity/double permeability models, in the DFM approach all the interactions and fluid flow in and between the fractures and within the matrix are modeled in a unified manner, using the same computational grid. There is no need for computing the shape factors, which are crucial to the accuracy of the double-porosity models. We have exploited this concept in order to develop a new method for the generation of unstructured computational grids. In the new approach the geological model (GM) of the reservoir is first generated, using square or cubic grid blocks. The GM is then upscaled using a method based on the multiresolution wavelet transformations that we recently developed. The upscaled grid contains a distribution of the square or cubic blocks of various sizes. A map of the blocks’ centers is then used with an optimized Delauney triangulation method and the advancing-front technique, in order to generate the final unstructured triangulated grid suitable for use in any general reservoir simulator with any number of fluid phases. The new method also includes an algorithm for generating fractures that, contrary to the previous methods, does not require modifying their paths due to the complexities that may arise in spatial distribution of the grid blocks. It also includes an effective partitioning of the simulation domain that results in large savings in the computation times. The speed-up in the computations with the new upscaled unstructured grid is about three orders of magnitude over that for the initial GM. Simulation of waterflooding indicates that the agreement between the results obtained with the GM and the upscaled unstructured grid is excellent. The method is equally applicable to the simulations of multiphase flow in unfractured, but highly heterogeneous, reservoirs.     

Two-phase flow for a horizontal well penetrating a naturally fractured reservoir with edge water injection

This paper examines the two-phase flow for a horizontal well penetrating a naturally fractured reservoir with edge water injection by means of a fixed streamline model. The mathematical model of the vertical two-dimensional flow or oil-water for a horizontal well in a medium with double-porosity is established, and whose accurate solutions are obtained by using the characteristic method. The saturation distributions in the fractured system and the matrix system as well as the formula of the time of water free production are presented. All these results provide a theoretical basis and a computing method for oil displacement by edge water from naturally fractured reservoirs.     

Mobility performance of a rigid wheel in low gravity environments

To investigate influences of gravity on mobility of wheeled rovers for future lunar/planetary exploration missions, model experiments of a soil-wheel system were performed on an aircraft during variable gravity maneuvers. The experimental set-up consists of a single rigid wheel and a soil bed with two kinds of dry sands: lunar soil simulant and Toyoura sand. The experimental results revealed that a lower gravity environment yields higher wheel slippage in variable gravity conditions. In addition to the partial gravity experiments, the same experiments with variable wheel load levels were also performed on ground (1 g conditions). The on-ground experiments produced opposite results to those obtained in the partial gravity experiments, where a lower wheel load yields lower slippage in a constant gravity environment. In low gravity environments, fluidity (flowability) of soil increases due to the confining stress reduction in the soil, while the effect of the wheel load on sinkage decreases. As a result, both of these effects are canceled out, and gravity seemingly has no effect on the wheel sinkage. In the meantime, in addition to the effect of wheel load reduction, the increase of the soil flowability lessens the shear resistance to the wheel rotation, as a result of which the wheel is unable to hold sufficient traction in low gravity environments. This suggests that the mobility of the wheel is governed concurrently by two mechanisms: the bearing characteristics to the wheel load, and the shearing characteristics to the wheel rotation. It appears that, in low gravity, the wheel mobility deteriorates due to the relative decrease in the driving force while the wheel sinkage remains constant. Thus, it can be concluded that the lunar and/or Mars’ gravity environments will be unfavorable in terms of the mobility performance of wheels as compared to the earth’s gravity condition.     

Predicting soil fragmentation during tillage operation using fuzzy logic approach

One of the main characteristics of the soil structure, which affects the plant growth and its yield, is its aggregates size. Correct tillage operations leads to prevention from soil degradation and help to maintain and improve its physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. In this paper, a model based on fuzzy logic approach was used to describe the soil fragmentation for seedbed preparation in the composition of primary and secondary tillage implements of subsoiler, moldboard plow and disk harrow as conventional tillage composition in the region. Field experiments were carried out at educational and research farms of faculty of agriculture, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili. In this paper, an intelligent model, based on Mamdani approach fuzzy modeling principles, was developed to predict soil fragmentation during tillage operation. The model inputs included soil moisture content, tractor forward speed and soil sampling depth. The fuzzy model consisted of 50 rules, in which three parameters of root mean square error (RMSE), relative error (ɛ), and coefficient of determination (R²) were used to evaluate the fuzzy model. These parameters were calculated 0.167%, 3.95%, and 0.988%, respectively. According to the results of this research, the fuzzy model can be introduced as one of the methods for predicting soil fragmentation during the tillage operation with high accuracy.     

冻融循环冻土的冲击动态力学性能

以典型冻土为研究对象,通过不同冻融循环次数的冻融循环实验、不同温度的冻结实验以及不同应变率的冲击动态实验,综合研究了冻融循环冻土的冲击动态力学性能。结果表明,冻土存在冻融循环效应,随着冻融循环次数的增加,冻土的峰值应力有一定程度的降低,但在达到临界冻融循环次数后,峰值应力将维持稳定;同时,冻土表现出明显的应变率效应和温度效应,其峰值应力随应变率的增加或温度的降低而增加。通过定义冻融损伤因子,推导满足Weibull分布的冲击损伤,提出了一个基于Z-W-T方程的损伤黏弹性本构模型。该模型可较好地描述冻融循环后冻土的冲击动态力学行为,为研究季节性冻土区冻土的冲击动态破坏提供参考。     

冻土力学的研究进展与思考

从冻结土的宏观力学性质,正冻土中的水、热迁移理论,正 冻土的水热力耦合模型四个方面分析综述了国内外冻土力学的发展 历史、研究现状与我国冻土力学研究中存在的问题,指出：（1）当 前冻土力学的研究内容应该从对冻结土的宏观强度与变形性质向更 切合实际工程需要的正冻土、正融土微、细观热、力学耦合性质方 面深化;（2）冻土力学的研究思路应该从对土样纯力学量的试验研 究向土样组构、级配、含水量、饱和度等土性指标在不同负温下对 土样颗粒排列与胶结特性的强度、变形影响机理方面转移;（3）冻 土力学的研究对象也应该从室内冻结试验的研究向具有各种不同水 热交换边界条件与水热迁移内在规律的冻土体发展。     

Characterization of a water mist based on digital particle images

The characteristics of a water mist, such as the droplet size and velocity distribution, the water mist atomization angle and the breakup length were determined with a newly developed nonintrusive pattern method, particle image velocimetry and sizing (PIVS), which is mainly based on the manipulation of digital particle images. A series of experiments were conducted using a semiconductor laser (with wavelength 650 nm and about 35-50-mW power), a plano-convex cylindrical lens and some other lenses to produce a light sheet approximately 1-mm thick. The typical results of a water mist under different conditions are shown in this paper.     

TWO－PHASE FLOW FOR A HORIZONTAL WELL PENETRATING A NATURALLY FRACTURED RESERVOIR WITH EDGE WATER INJECTION

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