CO₂ dissolution is considered as one of the most promising mechanisms for trapping of free-phase CO₂ into brine. It causes an increased density of the brine and initiation of gravitational instability that eventually leads to density-driven natural convection in saline aquifers. Correct estimation of the onset time for convection and the rate of dissolution of CO₂ into brine is important because the timescale for dissolution corresponds to the timescale over which free-phase CO₂ has a chance to leak out. The gravitational instability of a diffusive boundary layer in porous media has been studied in several papers in recent years, but there are few works about the behavior of density-driven natural convection mechanism in heterogeneous saline aquifers. Barriers such as shales and calcites layers are common types of heterogeneities in geological formations that are important in the fluid flow. Despite the recognized importance of convective dissolution in these heterogeneous geological formations, there is no experimental data available for studying the accelerated mass transfer rate of CO₂ into these media.

In this paper, we investigated the effect of the regular distribution of barriers on the rate of dissolution of CO₂ into water and geometries of convection fingers. A series of experiments were performed using a precise experimental set-up with barrier heterogeneous Hele-Shaw cell geometries and by using CO₂ and water. The approach and procedure for performing the experiments give us this opportunity to have both qualitative (images and movies) and quantitative (amount of the dissolved CO₂ into water) data at the same time. The behavior of convection pattern after onset time and the effect of system properties on the behavior of convective mixing process will be presented and discussed. Moreover, some speeded-up movies from the experiments that are suitable for improving public awareness of the problem have been uploaded on the internet platform. Lastly, the relationships between dissolution flux after onset time for convection and barrier properties are discussed.

CO ₂溶解被认为是将自由相CO ₂捕集到盐水中的最有希望的机制之一。它导致盐水密度增加，并引发重力不稳定性，最终导致盐水层中密度驱动的自然对流。对流的开始时间和CO ₂在盐水中的溶解速率的正确估计很重要，因为溶解的时间范围与自由相CO ₂的时间范围相对应有机会泄漏出去。近年来，已经对多孔介质中扩散边界层的重力失稳进行了研究，但是关于密度驱动的自然对流机制在非均质盐水层中的行为的工作很少。页岩和方解石层等障碍是地质构造中非均质性的常见类型，对流体流动很重要。尽管对流溶解在这些非均质的地质构造中具有公认的重要性，但尚无用于研究加速的CO ₂传质到这些介质中的传质速率的实验数据。

在本文中，我们研究了障碍物的规则分布对CO ₂溶于水的速率和对流指状件的几何形状的影响。使用具有障壁异质Hele-Shaw细胞几何形状的精确实验装置，以及使用CO ₂和水，进行了一系列实验。进行实验的方法和步骤为我们提供了定性（图像和电影）和定量（溶解的CO ₂量）的机会。放入水中）数据。将介绍并讨论对流模式在开始时间后的行为以及系统特性对对流混合过程行为的影响。此外，一些适合提高公众对这个问题的认识的实验加速电影已经上传到互联网平台上。最后，讨论了对流开始后溶出通量与阻隔性能之间的关系。