Modeling of flow and mass transport in granular porous media

The scope of this work is to estimate the effective mass-transfer coefficient in a two-phase system of oil and water fluid droplets, both being in a porous medium. To this end, a tracer is advected from the flowing aqueous phase to the immobile non-aqueous one. Partitioning at the fluid-fluid interface and surface diffusion are also taken into account. By using spatial/volume-averaging techniques, the appropriately simplified boundary-value problems are described and numerically solved for the flow velocity field and for the transport problem. The problem was found to be controlled by the Peclet number of the flowing phase, the dimensionless parameter Λ, containing both diffusion and partition in the two phases, as well as the geometrical properties of the porous structure. It is also verified that the usually involved unit cell-configurations underestimate the mass transport to the immobile phase.     

Stochastic langevin model for flow and transport in porous media

We present a new model for fluid flow and solute transport in porous media, which employs smoothed particle hydrodynamics to solve a Langevin equation for flow and dispersion in porous media. This allows for effective separation of the advective and diffusive mixing mechanisms, which is absent in the classical dispersion theory that lumps both types of mixing into dispersion coefficient. The classical dispersion theory overestimates both mixing-induced effective reaction rates and the effective fractal dimension of the mixing fronts associated with miscible fluid Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. We demonstrate that the stochastic (Langevin equation) model overcomes these deficiencies.     

Stochastic effects on single phase fluid flow in porous media.

The flow encoded PEPI technique has been used to measure the fluid velocity distribution and fluid flow of water passing through a phantom comprising randomly distributed 10 mm glass beads. The object of these experiments is to determine the degree of causality between one steady-state flow condition and another. That is to say, knowing the mean fluid velocity and velocity distribution, can one predict what happens at a higher mean fluid velocity? In a second related experiment flow is established at a given mean fluid velocity. The velocity distribution is measured. The flow is then turned off and later re-established. In both kinds of experiment we conclude that the errors in predicting the flow velocity distribution and the errors in re-establishing a given velocity distribution lie well outside the intrinsic thermal noise associated with velocity measurement. It follows, therefore, that the causal approach to prediction of flow velocity distributions in porous media using the Navier-Stokes approach is invalid.     

Numerical methods for multiscale transport equations and application to two-phase porous media flow

We discuss numerical methods for linear and nonlinear transport equations with multiscale velocity fields. These methods are themselves multiscaled in nature in the sense that they use macro and micro grids, multiscale test functions. We demonstrate the efficiency of these methods and apply them to two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media.     

Dissimilar electro-osmotic flow and ionic current recirculation patterns in porous media detected by NMR mapping experiments

Random-site percolation clusters were milled into ceramic (polar) and polystyrene (nonpolar) plates as a paradigm for porous media or complex microsystem channel networks. The pore space was filled with electrolyte solutions. Using NMR microscopy techniques, maps of the following quantities were recorded: (i) flow velocity driven by external pressure gradient, (ii) electro-osmotic flow (EOF) velocity, (iii) ionic current density in the presence of EOF, (iv) ionic current density in the absence of EOF. As far as possible, the experiments were supplemented by computational fluid dynamics simulations. It is shown that electro-osmotic flow as well as the electric current density include vortices and recirculation patterns. Remarkably, all transport patterns turned out to be dissimilar, and the occurrence and positions of vortices do not coincide in the different maps.     

Two-phase flow in porous media: dynamical phase transition

We study numerically the behavior of two-phase flow in porous media via the parameters capillary number and viscosity ratio, under steady-state conditions and various levels of saturation. We construct a phase diagram, where the phases are defined according to whether one or both fluids move. We establish a semi-empirical theory for the location of the phase boundaries. The steady-state conditions are obtained by implementing biperiodic boundary conditions.     

Inertial capture in flow through porous media

We investigate through numerical calculation of non-Brownian particles transported by a fluid in a porous medium, the influence of geometry and inertial effects on the capture efficiency of the solid matrix. In the case of a periodic array of cylinders and under the action of gravity, our results reveal that δ ～ St, where δ is the particle capture efficiency, and St is the Stokes number. In the absence of gravity, we observe a typical second order transition between non-trapping and trapping of particles that can be expressed as δ ～ (St ? St _c ) ^α , with an exponent α ≈ 0.5, where St _c is the critical Stokes number. We also perform simulations for flow through a random porous structure and confirm that its capture behavior is consistent with the simple periodic model.     

Hydrodynamics in two-phase flow within porous media

Ultra-fast magnetic resonance imaging techniques are used to image liquid distribution in two and three dimensions during air-water co-current down flow through a fixed bed of cylindrical porous pellets of length and diameter 3 mm, packed within a 43 mm internal diameter column in both the trickle- and pulsing-flow regimes. The data acquisition times used were 20 and 280 ms, giving 2-D and 3-D spatial resolutions of 1.4 mm x 2.8 mm and 3.75 mm x 3.75 mm x 1.87 mm, respectively. This work reports images of local pulsing events within the bed occurring during the trickle-to-pulse flow transition. The evolution of the local instabilities is studied as a function of increasing liquid velocity at constant gas velocity.     

Electric field driven flow in natural porous media

Electric fields were applied to fluid-saturated packed sand beds (0.23+/-0.03 mm average pore diameter), and the effects on the mobility of the water molecules were monitored using stimulated echo (STE) and pulsed field gradient (PFG) experiments. The mean flow velocity, averaged over the entire sample, is expected to vanish in closed systems, but the PFG and time dependent signal decay was enhanced beyond the effects of thermal diffusion, due to velocity dispersion. The internal flow generated by the electric field was shown to be fully time-reversible upon inverting the electric field polarity (for total flow times of up to 0.4s), a strong indication that the NMR detected displacements were mainly due to electro-osmotic flow (EOF). However, a comparison of the velocity dispersion for different electrolyte concentrations showed that the measured effect scaled with the applied power VI (V = voltage, I = electric current), rather than with the voltage alone, contrary to the prediction of the basic model for EOF in a single capillary channel.     

Two—phase flow in correlated pore—throat random porous media

We have constructed a porous media model in which there are percolation clusters with varying percolation probability P and correlated site-bonds. Taking into account both the pore and the throat geometry, the viscous fingering (VF) in porous media has been investigated by using the standard over-relaxed Gauss-Seidel scheme. The simulation results show that the VF structure varies with the correlation parameter ε, the viscosity ratio M and the percolation probability P. The smaller the correlation parameter ε, the greater the deviation of the normalized size distribution of the invaded throat N_inv(r) from the truncated Rayleigh distribution. For a larger viscosity ratio M, the VF pattern looks like a diffusion-limited-aggregation structure in percolation clusters. The fractal dimension D increases with the increase of the percolation probability P and the correlation parameter ε. The velocity distribution f(α) of VF in percolation clusters is of a parabola-like curve. The tail of the distribution (large α) is longer for a larger correlation parameter ε. For a smaller ε, the distribution is very sharp. The sweep efficiency E decreases along with the decrease of the correlation parameter ε and the increase of the network size L_nz. E has a minimum as L_nz increases up to the maximum no matter what the values of P, M and ε. The E～ L_nz curve has a frozen zone and an active zone. The geometry and the topology of the porous media have strong effects on the displacement processes and the structure of VF.     

Time-dependent velocities in porous media dispersive flow.

Pulsed Gradient Spin Echo (PGSE) NMR methods may be used to measure the asymptotic dispersion coefficient as well as the velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) in porous media flow. The VACF can be measured in the frequency domain using repetitive gradient pulse trains, and in the time domain using double PGSE encoding. The one dimensional double PGSE method, and the two dimensional velocity exchange experiment (VEXSY) are briefly outlined and their application to flow in monodisperse 0.5 mm diameter beads packs described, both axial and transverse VACFs being examined. The measured correlation times are shown to agree well with calculated values. The asymptotic dispersion coefficients agree with literature values in the case of transverse flow while in axial flow it is shown that asymptotic conditions are not achieved, even for observation times longer than the correlation time for flow around a bead.     

Ion transport in porous media studied by NMR.

Moisture and salt transport in masonry can give rise to damages. Therefore a detailed knowledge of the moisture and salt transport is essential for understanding the durability of masonry. A special NMR apparatus has been made allowing quasi-simultaneous measurements of both moisture and Na profiles in porous building materials. Using this apparatus both the absorption of a 4 M NaCl solution in a calcium silicate brick and the drying of a 3 M NaCl capillary saturated fired-clay brick have been studied. It was found that during the absorption process the Na ions clearly stay behind, which this is caused by adsorption of these ions to the pore surface. For the drying it was found that at the beginning of the drying process the ions accumulate near the surface. As the drying rate decreases, diffusion becomes dominant and the ion profile levels off again.     

多孔介质中卡森流体的分形分析

研究了非牛顿流体中的卡森流体在多孔介质中的流动特性.基于服从分形分布的弯曲毛细管束模型,运用分形几何理论推导出了该流体在多孔介质中流动的流量、流速、启动压力梯度和有效渗透率的分形解析解.模型中的每一个参数都有明确的物理意义,它将卡森流体在多孔介质中的流动特性与多孔介质的微结构参数有机联系起来.文中给出了卡森流体的流速、启动压力梯度和有效渗透率随着各影响因素的变化趋势,并进行了讨论.所得分形模型可以更深刻地理解卡森流体在多孔介质中流动的内在物理机理. 关键词： 多孔介质 卡森流体 分形     

磷脂在膜结构间的交换:温度和离子强度的影响

磷脂跨膜交换对生物膜功能与药学研究有重要意义.石英电子微天平及耗散系数测量仪被用于研究囊泡与支撑膜间磷脂的交换行为.研究表明:首先,在磷脂跨膜输运过程中,热力学环境和离子强度对支撑膜表面吸附囊泡的形变程度影响较小,囊泡与支撑膜的总接触面积直接取决于囊泡的吸附数量;其次,交换过程中膜结构间最大总接触面积随着温度的升高和离子强度的降低而增大,温度和离子引起的囊泡吸附速率和跨膜交换速率的变化在其中发挥着关键调节作用.本研究有助于加深对磷脂在生理条件下跨膜输运过程的理解,并为基于脂质体的药物载运体系研究提供参考.