Pore-scale study of effects of surface roughness on the transport of interfacial reactive tracers during primary drainage process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huhao Gao ◽  
Alexandru Tatomir ◽  
Nikolaos Karadimitriou ◽  
Holger Steeb ◽  
Martin Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Porous Media ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
Capillary Condensation ◽  
Field Method ◽  
Phase Field Method ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Water Films ◽  
Mobile Mass ◽  
The Impact

<p>Porous media surface roughness strongly influences the transport of solutes during drainage, due to the formation of thick water films (capillary condensation) on the porous media surface. In the case of interfacial-reacted, water-based solutes, these water films increase both the production of the solute, due to the increased number of fluid-fluid interfaces, and the loss of the solute by the retention in the stagnant water films. The retention of the solute in flowing water is described by a mobile mass retention term. This study applies the pore-scale direct simulation with the phase-field method based continuous solute transport (PFM-CST) model on the kinetic interfacial sensitive (KIS) tracer reactive transport during primary drainage in a 2D slit with a wall with variable fractal geometries. The capillary-associated moving interface is found to be larger for rough surfaces than smoother ones. The results confirm that the impact of roughness regarding the film-associated interfacial area can be partly, or totally masked, in a drained slit. It is found that the mobile mass retention term is increased with larger volumes of capillary condensed water films. To conclude, it is also found that the surface roughness factor has a non-monotonic relationship with the overall production rate of solute mass in moving water.</p>

Impact of chaotic mixing on reactive transport: experiment in porous media at high Pe and Da

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Sanquer ◽  
Joris Heyman ◽  
Tanguy Le Borgne ◽  
Khalil Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
3D Imaging ◽  
Fluid Phase ◽  
Reaction Rates ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Chaotic Mixing ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Chemical Gradients ◽  
The Impact

<p>Solute transport in porous media plays a key role in a range of chemical and biological processes, including contaminant degradation, precipitation, dissolution and microbiological dynamics. Increasing evidences have shown that the conventional complete mixing assumption at the pore scale can lead to a strong overestimation of reaction rates. Recent 3D imaging experiments of mixing in porous media suggest that these pore scale chemical gradients may be sustained by chaotic mixing dynamics. However, the consequences of such chaotic mixing on reactive processes are unknown.</p><p>In this work, we use reactive transport experiments coupled to 3D imaging to investigate the impact of micro-scale chaotic flows on mixing-limited reactions in the fluid phase.  We use optical index matching and laser-induced fluorescence to characterize the pore scale distribution of reactive product concentration for a range of Peclet and Damkhöler numbers. We use these measurements to develop a reactive lamellar theory that quantifies the impact of pore scale chemical gradients induced by chaotic mixing on effective reaction rates. These results provide new perspectives for upscaling reactive transport processes in porous media.</p>

A phase field method pore-scale model for simulating kinetic interface sensitive tracers reactive transport in porous media two-phase flow systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huhao Gao ◽  
Alexandru Tatomir ◽  
Nikolaos Karadimitriou ◽  
Martin Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Process ◽  
Phase Field ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
Two Phase Flow ◽  
Interfacial Area ◽  
Field Method ◽  
Phase Field Method ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Two Phase

<p>Over the last few years, our understanding of the processes involved in the application of Kinetic Interfacial Sensitive (KIS) tracers in two-phase flow as a means to quantify the fluid-fluid interfacial area has been enhanced with the use of controlled column experiments (Tatomir et al. 2015,2018). However, there are still some open questions regarding the effect of immobile water, either as capillary and dead-end trapped water or as a film, and the measured by product concentration at the outflow.</p><p>In this study, a new pore-scale reactive transport model is presented, based on the phase-field method, which is able to deal with the KIS tracer interfacial reaction and selective distribution of the by-production into the water phase. The model is validated by comparing the analytical solutions for a diffusion process across the interface and a reaction-diffusion process, and is tested for a drainage process in a capillary tube for different Péclet numbers. The applicability of the model is demonstrated in a realistic 2D porous medium NAPL/water drainage scenario used in the literature. Four case studies are investigated in detail to obtain macroscopic parameters, like saturation, capillary pressure, specific interfacial area, and concentration, for a number of combinations between the inflow rate, the contact angle and diffusivity. We derive a relation between the by-product mass at the outflow and the mobile part of the interfacial area, which is formulated by adding a residual factor. This term relates to the part of the by-product produced by mobile interface that becomes residual in the immobile zones.</p>

Capillary Trapping Following Imbibition in Porous Media: Microfluidic Quantification of the Impact of Pore‐Scale Surface Roughness

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 9905-9925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayaz Mehmani ◽  
Shaina Kelly ◽  
Carlos Torres‐Verdín ◽  
Matthew Balhoff
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Porous Media ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Capillary Trapping ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Scale Surface

scholarly journals Pore-scale investigation of selective plugging mechanism in immiscible two-phase flow using phase-field method

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Sabooniha ◽  
Mohammad-Reza Rokhforouz ◽  
Shahab Ayatollahi
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Phase Field ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Field Method ◽  
Phase Field Method ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Computational Domain ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
The Matrix

Biotechnology has had a major effect on improving crude oil displacement to increase petroleum production. The role of biopolymers and bio cells for selective plugging of production zones through biofilm formation has been defined. The ability of microorganisms to improve the volumetric sweep efficiency and increase oil recovery by plugging off high-permeability layers and diverting injection fluid to lower-permeability was studied through experimental tests followed by multiple simulations. The main goal of this research was to examine the selective plugging effect of hydrophobic bacteria cell on secondary oil recovery performance. In the experimental section, water and aqua solution of purified Acinetobacter strain RAG-1 were injected into an oil-saturated heterogeneous micromodel porous media. Pure water injection could expel oil by 41%, while bacterial solution injection resulted in higher oil recovery efficiency; i.e., 59%. In the simulation section, a smaller part of the heterogeneous geometry was employed as a computational domain. A numerical model was developed using coupled Cahn–Hilliard phase-field method and Navier–Stokes equations, solved by a finite element solver. In the non-plugging model, approximately 50% of the matrix oil is recovered through water injection. Seven different models, which have different plugging distributions, were constructed to evaluate the influences of selective plugging mechanism on the flow patterns. Each plugging module represents a physical phenomenon which can resist the displacing phase flow in pores, throats, and walls during Microbial-Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR). After plugging of the main diameter route, displacing phase inevitably exit from sidelong routes located on the top and bottom of the matrix. Our results indicate that the number of plugs occurring in the medium could significantly affect the breakthrough time. It was also observed that increasing the number of plugging modules may not necessarily lead to higher ultimate oil recovery. Furthermore, it was shown that adjacent plugs to the inlet caused flow patterns similar to the non-plugging model, and higher oil recovery factor than the models with farther plugs from the inlet. The obtained results illustrated that the fluids distribution at the pore-scale and the ultimate oil recovery are strongly dependent on the plugging distribution.

scholarly journals Wettability control on multiphase flow in patterned microfluidics

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (37) ◽  
pp. 10251-10256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benzhong Zhao ◽  
Christopher W. MacMinn ◽  
Ruben Juanes
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Multiphase Flow ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Flow In Porous Media ◽  
Wetting Transition ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Displacement Efficiency ◽  
Pore Filling ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Multiphase flow in porous media is important in many natural and industrial processes, including geologic CO2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and water infiltration into soil. Although it is well known that the wetting properties of porous media can vary drastically depending on the type of media and pore fluids, the effect of wettability on multiphase flow continues to challenge our microscopic and macroscopic descriptions. Here, we study the impact of wettability on viscously unfavorable fluid–fluid displacement in disordered media by means of high-resolution imaging in microfluidic flow cells patterned with vertical posts. By systematically varying the wettability of the flow cell over a wide range of contact angles, we find that increasing the substrate’s affinity to the invading fluid results in more efficient displacement of the defending fluid up to a critical wetting transition, beyond which the trend is reversed. We identify the pore-scale mechanisms—cooperative pore filling (increasing displacement efficiency) and corner flow (decreasing displacement efficiency)—responsible for this macroscale behavior, and show that they rely on the inherent 3D nature of interfacial flows, even in quasi-2D media. Our results demonstrate the powerful control of wettability on multiphase flow in porous media, and show that the markedly different invasion protocols that emerge—from pore filling to postbridging—are determined by physical mechanisms that are missing from current pore-scale and continuum-scale descriptions.

Pore-scale hydrodynamic evolution within carbonate rock during CO2 injection and sequestration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Siyan Liu ◽  
Reza Barati
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
Injection Rate ◽  
Mineral Dissolution ◽  
Co2 Injection ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Calcite Dissolution ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
The Impact

<p><span>The continuously rising threat of global warming caused by human activities related to CO</span><span><sub>2</sub> emission is facilitating the development of greenhouse gas control technologies. Subsurface CO</span><span><sub>2</sub> injection and sequestration is one of the promising techniques to store CO</span><span><sub>2</sub> in the subsurface. </span><span> </span><span>However, during CO<sub>2</sub> injection, the mechanisms of processes like injectant immobilizations and trapping and pore-scale geochemical reactions such as mineral dissolution/precipitation are not well understood. Consequently, the multi-physics modeling approach is essential to elucidate the impact of all potential factors during CO<sub>2</sub> injection, thus to facilitate the optimization of this engineered application.</span> </p><p><span>Here, we propose a coupled framework to fully utilize the capabilities of the geochemical reaction solver PHREEQC while preserving the Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM) high-resolution pore-scale fluid flow integrated with diffusion processes. The model can simulate the dynamic fluid-solid interactions with equilibrium, kinetics, and surface reactions under the reactive-transport scheme.  In a simplified 2D spherical pack, we focused on examining the impact of pore sizes, grain size distributions, porosity, and permeability on the calcite dissolution/precipitation rate. Our simulation results show that the higher permeability, injection rate, and more local pore connectivity would significantly increase the reaction rate, then accelerate the pore-scale geometrical evolutions. Meanwhile, model accuracy is not sacrificed by reducing the number of reactants/species within the system.</span></p><p><span>Our modeling framework provides high-resolution details of the pore-scale fluid-solid interaction dynamics. To gain more insights into the mineral-fluid interfacial properties during CO</span><span><sub>2</sub> sequestration, our next step is to combine the electrodynamic forces into the model. Potentially, the proposed framework can be used for model upscaling and adaptive subsurface management in the future. </span><span> </span></p>

Diffusion limited mixing in heterogeneous porous media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayumi Hamada ◽  
Pietro de Anna
Keyword(s):  
Porous Medium ◽  
Porous Media ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Fast Diffusion ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Mixing Processes ◽  
Local Flow ◽  
Gaussian Shape ◽  
Diffusion Limited ◽  
The Impact

<p><span><span>A pore-scale description of the transport and mixing processes is particularly relevant when looking at biological and chemical reactions. For instance, a microbial population growth is controlled by local concentrations of nutrients and oxygen, and chemical reaction are driven by molecular-scale concentration gradients. The heterogeneous flow field typically found in porous media results from the contrast of velocities that deforms and elongates the mixing fronts between solutes that often evolves through a lamella-like topology. For continuous Darcy type flow field a novel framework that describes the statistical distribution of concentration being transported was recently developed (Le Borgne et al., JFM 2015). In this model, concentrations in each lamella are distributed as a Gaussian-like profile which experiences diffusion in the transverse direction while the lamella is elongated by advection along the local flow direction. The evolving concentration field is described as the superposition of each lamella. We hypothesize that this novel view, while perfectly predicting the distribution of concentration for Darcy scale mixing processes, will breakdown when the processes description is at the pore scale. Indeed the presence of solid and impermeable boundaries prevents lamella concentration to diffuse freely according to the a Gaussian shape, and therefore changes the mixing front profile, the lamella superposition and elongation rules. P</span></span><span><span>revious work (Hamada et al, PRF, 2020) demonstrated that </span></span><span><span>the presence of solid boundaries leads to an enhanced diffusion and thus fast homogenization of concentrations. </span></span><span><span>In a purely diffusive process the local mixing time is reduced by a factor of ten with respect to the </span></span><span><span>continuous case and concentration gradient are dissipated exponentially fast while a </span></span><span><span>power law decrease </span></span><span><span>is </span></span><span><span>observed in continuous medium.</span></span><span><span> To investigate the impact of these mechanisms on mixing we developed a</span></span><span><span>n experimental set-up to visualize and quantify the displacement of a conservative tracer in a synthetic porous medium. The designed apparatus allows to obtain high resolution concentration measurement</span></span><span><span>s</span></span><span><span> at the pore scale. We show that the resulting mixing measures, computed in terms of concentration probability density function and dilution index values, diverge </span></span><span><span>qualitatively and quantitatively from what happens in a continuous domain. These observations suggest </span></span><span><span>that description of pore-scale diffusion-limited mixing requires model that takes into account the confined nature of porous medium, </span></span><span><span>otherwise we will tend to overestimate concentration value and neglect the fast diffusion dynamic taking place at microscopic level.</span></span></p>

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