Publication Date:
2013-12-27
Description:
A new Lagrangian particle-based method is presented to simulate reactive transport in natural porous media. This technique is based on Modified Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MMPS) and takes as input high-resolution voxel images of natural porous media. The flow field in the medium is computed by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Moreover, a multi-component ion transport model is coupled with a homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions module to handle pore-space alteration (i.e., pore-wall dissolution). The model is first successfully validated against the experimental data available in the literature. Subsequently, x-ray micro-tomographic images of two naturally-occurring porous media are used to investigate the impact of reaction kinetics and porespace topology on pore-space alteration induced by brine acidification in subsurface conditions. We observed that at the normal rates of reactions no significant change in porosity and permeability takes place in the short term. Whereas, higher reaction rates caused major changes in the macroscopic properties (e.g., porosity and permeability) of the rocks. We also show that these changes are strongly affected by the rocks’ pore-scale topologies.
Print ISSN:
0043-1397
Electronic ISSN:
1944-7973
Topics:
Architecture, Civil Engineering, Surveying
,
Geography
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