The formation of new mineral phases in confined environments, especially in porous media, is crucial for various geological processes like mineralization and diagenesis. The nucleation and precipitation of minerals are initiated at the microscale through fluid-rock interaction, where dissolution of primary phases leads to supersaturated conditions and nucleation and growth of secondary ones. Previous research has focused primarily on either precipitation or nucleation, without fully exploring their combined impact. Our study introduces a computational framework that integrates classical nucleation theory with the micro-continuum method. We validated our model by comparing with experiments, and discovered that different surface nucleation rate changes the mode of precipitation from a preferential to uniform precipitate textures. Furthermore, our study uncovered that the conventional deterministic precipitation method tends to underestimate the permeability of the porous matrix. In contrast, the new framework significantly improves model accuracy by incorporating preferential precipitation and heterogeneous nucleation.

中文翻译：

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密闭环境中成核非均质性对矿物沉淀的影响

在受限环境中，特别是在多孔介质中，新矿物相的形成对于矿化和成岩作用等各种地质过程至关重要。矿物的成核和沉淀是通过流体-岩石相互作用在微尺度上引发的，其中初生相的溶解导致过饱和条件以及次生相的成核和生长。先前的研究主要集中于沉淀或成核，而没有充分探索它们的综合影响。我们的研究引入了一个将经典成核理论与微连续介质方法相结合的计算框架。我们通过与实验比较验证了我们的模型，发现不同的表面成核率改变了析出模式从优先析出织构到均匀析出织构。此外，我们的研究发现，传统的确定性沉淀方法往往会低估多孔基质的渗透率。相比之下，新框架通过结合优先沉淀和异质成核显着提高了模型精度。