Recirculation zones induce non-Fickian transport in three-dimensional periodic porous media.
Phys Rev E
; 94(5-1): 053118, 2016 Nov.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27967112
ABSTRACT
In this work, the influence of pore space geometry on solute transport in porous media is investigated performing computational fluid dynamics pore-scale simulations of fluid flow and solute transport. The three-dimensional periodic domains are obtained from three different pore structure configurations, namely, face-centered-cubic (fcc), body-centered-cubic (bcc), and sphere-in-cube (sic) arrangements of spherical grains. Although transport simulations are performed with media having the same grain size and the same porosity (in fcc and bcc configurations), the resulting breakthrough curves present noteworthy differences, such as enhanced tailing. The cause of such differences is ascribed to the presence of recirculation zones, even at low Reynolds numbers. Various methods to readily identify recirculation zones and quantify their magnitude using pore-scale data are proposed. The information gained from this analysis is then used to define macroscale models able to provide an appropriate description of the observed anomalous transport. A mass transfer model is applied to estimate relevant macroscale parameters (hydrodynamic dispersion above all) and their spatial variation in the medium; a functional relation describing the spatial variation of such macroscale parameters is then proposed.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Phys Rev E
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italy