Abstract In this paper, the melting process of a PCM inside an inclined compound enclosure partially filled with a porous medium is theoretically addressed using a novel deformed mesh method. The sub-domain area of the compound enclosure is made of a porous layer and clear region. The right wall of the enclosure is adjacent to the clear region and is subject to a constant temperature of Tc. The left

Abstract The increasing access to 3d digital images of porous media provides an ideal avenue for the determination of their transport properties, by solving the governing equations in their actual microscale geometry and evaluating the tensor coefficient that relates the mean flux and driving gradient. However, the first and puzzling question along the way is the choice of the conditions to be imposed

Abstract In digital rock physics, the intrinsic permeability of a porous rock sample can be evaluated from its micro-computed tomography (\(\upmu\)-CT) image through lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) simulation. The LBM permeability evaluation has been increasingly adopted by the oil and gas industries, especially when the access to core samples is limited. In order to accurately evaluate the permeability

Abstract Permeability of fractured media plays an important role in many hydrogeologic applications. In this study, we propose an approach to quantify the equivalent permeability of fractal fractured media along with the fracture length direction, and both the laminar flow and nonlinear flow are considered according to the fracture features and critical Reynolds number. The analytical expression for

Abstract In this study, a novel triple pore network model (T-PNM) is introduced which is composed of a single pore network model (PNM) coupled to fractures and micro-porosities. We use two stages of the watershed segmentation algorithm to extract the required data from semi-real micro-tomography images of porous material and build a structural network composed of three conductive elements: meso-pores

Abstract The present work investigates the thermal radiation transport inside porous media under local thermal non-equilibrium conditions. Two different geometrical situations, a two-dimensional channel and a cylindrical geometry, are considered in the analysis. Porous media application is generally associated with high-temperature combustion, and radiative heat transfer is dominant. In this paper

Abstract In a previous publication (Sorbie and Stamatiou in Transp Porous Media 123:271–287, 2018), we presented a one-dimensional analytical solution for scale inhibitor transport and retention in a porous medium through a kinetic precipitation mechanism. In this process, a chemical complex of the scale inhibitor precipitates within the porous matrix and it then re-dissolves through a kinetic solubilisation

Abstract The analytical theory on Darcy–Bénard convection is dominated by normal-mode approaches, which essentially reduce the spatial order from four to two. This paper goes beyond the normal-mode paradigm of convection onset in a porous rectangle. A handpicked case where all four corners of the rectangle are non-analytical is therefore investigated. The marginal state is oscillatory with one-way

Abstract We investigate the Küppers–Lortz (KL) instability in the rotating Brinkman–Bénard convection problem by assuming that there is local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) between the Newtonian liquid and the high-porosity medium that it has occupied to the point of saturation. The effects of local thermal non-equilibrium parameters on the threshold value of the Taylor number and the angle between

Abstract The present study presents a comprehensive analysis of effects of porous fins on mixed convection heat transfer in lid-driven square cavities, where the top lid has the two-way movement. Porous medium with varying permeability, instead of the solid one, could widely modify its baffling effect on fluid flow and could also be utilized to control fluid flow and heat transfer. Fluid flow within

Abstract We perform steady-state simulations with a dynamic pore network model, corresponding to a large span in viscosity ratios and capillary numbers. From these simulations, dimensionless steady-state time-averaged quantities such as relative permeabilities, residual saturations, mobility ratios and fractional flows are computed. These quantities are found to depend on three dimensionless variables

Abstract The use of the linear Boltzmann equation is proposed for transport in porous media in a column. By column experiments, we show that the breakthrough curve is reproduced by the linear Boltzmann equation. The advection–diffusion equation is derived from the linear Boltzmann equation in the asymptotic limit of large propagation distance and long time.

Abstract This paper numerically investigates the viscous fingering phenomenon. Two-dimensional horizontal model reservoir was considered for homogeneous porous media with immiscible fluids. A series of numerical simulations was performed with two distinct solvers for various combinations of relative permeability, capillary pressure and material properties in order to analyse morphological properties

Abstract The Stokes–Brinkman coupling has been employed to investigate the flow through porous media composed of packed spheres. By matching the slip velocity using the Navier-slip condition, optimal values of the effective viscosity in the continuous stress condition and of the stress jump coefficient in the stress jump condition could be accurately determined. The correlations between the slip length

Abstract The performance of the gas diffusion electrode (GDE) is crucial for technical processes like chlorine–alkali electrolysis. The function of the GDE is to provide an intimate contact between gaseous reactants, the solid catalyst, and the liquid electrolyte. To accomplish this, the GDE is composed of wetting and non-wetting materials to avoid electrolyte breakthrough. Knowledge of the spatial

Abstract Experiments in porous media suffer from preferential flow along apparatus walls—called the wall effect—which results from higher porosity and therefore higher permeability near the walls. Through a theoretical analysis of porosity in a three-dimensional rectangular apparatus containing spherical beads with hexagonal close packing, this study shows that porosity, and therefore wall effects

Abstract This communication explores the influence of boundary effects, embedded sensors and crack opening on high-temperature experiments of concrete as revealed by in situ neutron tomography. The hypotheses routinely taken about these experimental aspects in common practice are hereby reassessed in light of the insight given by noninvasive full-field measurements. Notably, we directly assess the

Abstract Microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) in porous media is a two-step procedure: First, the suspension of bacteria is injected and some of the bacteria get stuck on the grains. The second stage consists in the injection of a calcifying solution that triggers the calcite precipitation and creates a calcite shell around the bacteria. In the present article, we describe a novel method

Abstract Tortuosity quantitatively reflects the complexity of porous media. For the diffusion process in porous media, diffusive tortuosity is inevitably an important research topic. A simulation experimental method is proposed to study diffusive tortuosity in granular soil based on 3D pore-scale simulation by smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). On the basis of the simulation results, the relationships

Abstract Results of column tests performed on large undisturbed samples are presented, focusing on the behavior of the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient (\(D_h\)). Tests were performed employing petroleum produced water from onshore facilities percolating sandy soils with different fine contents. To measure the organic content of the produced water, this work used the parameter TPH (total petroleum

Abstract The processes that control binary mixing of two sizes of grains have been investigated theoretically and validated by comparison with experimental data. These seemingly simple experiments are difficult to carry out with the degree of precision needed to test the models. We have developed a methodology allowing porosity and permeability to be measured to within ± 4.415% and ± 4.989% (at a flow

Abstract Effectively mobilizing displacement and predicting mobilization pressure in a porous-type reservoir filled with bubbles or blobs require the knowledge of variation of contact angles and capillary pressure. A bubble/blob has two interfaces and thus has two contact angles. It has been found that double interfaces cause resistance to displacement, and the resisting pressure rises while one contact

Abstract Fluid displacement in porous media can usually be formulated as a Riemann problem. Finding the solution to such a problem helps shed light on the dynamics of flow and consequently optimize operational parameters such as injected fluid composition. We developed an algorithm to find solutions to a class of Riemann problems of multiphase flow in porous media. In general, the solution to a Riemann

Abstract The Welge–JBN method for determining relative permeability from unsteady-state waterflood test is commonly used for two-phase flows in porous media. We discuss the theoretical criteria that limits application of the basic Buckley–Leverett model and Welge–JBN method and the operational criteria of the accuracy of measurements during core waterflood tests. The objective is determination of the

Abstract The spatial domain of interpretation in pressure transient and formation testing is constrained by its radius of investigation. A classical descriptor for this radius relies on the time derivative of pressure within a bounded domain becoming time independent. Another approach quantifies the radius of investigation based on the distance at which the pressure change is greater than the characteristic

Abstract We present a set of multiphase flow simulations where supercritical CO\(_2\) (scCO\(_2\)) displaces water at hydrostatic conditions within three-dimensional discrete fracture networks that represent paths for potential leakage through caprock above CO\(_2\) storage reservoirs. The simulations are performed to characterize and compare the relative impact of hydraulic and structural heterogeneity

Abstract This study seeks to improve numerical simulations of the key physics occurring in CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) processes, with a particular focus on the transition from immiscible to miscible displacements. In the previous work, we have investigated interactions between compositional effects and the underlying heterogeneities of the flow field in near-miscible floods (Wang et al. in

Abstract The ability to determine a predictive stability criterion is of great practical importance for designing stable polymer-based displacements. Where one usually resorts to a limited number of core-scale experiments or coarse-scale reservoir simulations, the first ones are potentially impacted by length scale issues, while the second ones possibly smooth out sharp displacing fronts and physical

Abstract Permeation accompanying droplet spreading is a well-known phenomenon in additive manufacturing, for example in inkjet printing and coating, where the extremely dynamic evolution of the free surface influences printing accuracy and uniformity. It is exceedingly difficult to track the permeation interface and dynamically deformed surface by experimental methods alone. In the work reported here

Abstract This paper provides critical insights into the rigorous formulation of moderately rarefied gas transport through narrow channels in naturally and induced fractured porous media, such as gas shale rocks, approximated as round (cylindrical) and flat (slit) types. This formulation considers critical improvements over the previous attempts by proper implementation of the effective equivalent mean

Abstract Describing different transport phenomena through porous media at micro- and mesoscale represents a convenient pre-step in experimental characterization for materials. A detailed study of transport properties in porous materials is required to find suitable microstructural configurations which allow a better performance into mechanic/hydraulic system. Porous media are widely used in several

Abstract The development of a macroscopic model for solute transport coupled with unsaturated water flow in double-porosity media is presented in this work, by using the asymptotic homogenization method. The model was derived for the case in which the medium exhibits a strong contrast of transport properties by upscaling rigorously the transport mechanisms from micro-scale to macro-scale. It consists

Abstract In this paper, we derive upscaled equations for modeling biofilm growth in porous media. The resulting macroscale mathematical models consider permeable multi-species biofilm including water flow, transport, detachment and reactions. The biofilm is composed of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), water, active bacteria and dead bacteria. The free flow is described by the Stokes and continuity

Abstract A firm understanding and control of viscous fingering (VF) and miscible displacement will be vital to a wide range of industrial, environmental, and pharmaceutical applications, such as geological carbon dioxide sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and drug delivery. We restrict our study to VF, a well-known hydrodynamic instability, in miscible fluid systems but consider double-diffusive

Abstract The paper presents a novel approach for uncertainty propagation in multicomponent two-phase displacements. This approach originates from and extends the frozen streamlines (FROST) distribution method for two-phase Buckley–Leverett displacements described in Ibrahima et al. (Transp Porous Media 109(1):81–107, 2015). The developed FROST method for multicomponent systems relies on the analytical

A linear stability analysis for the onset of mixed convection in a saturated porous medium through an absolute instability of both two- and three-dimensional disturbances is performed. Relevant control parameters associated with the inclined temperature gradient and the vertical throughflow are the vertical and horizontal Rayleigh numbers, \(R_{\mathrm{v}}\) and \(R_{\mathrm{h}}\), and the vertical

Abstract Understanding mechanism of transmitted and stored heat in porous materials was extremely important for improving thermal protective performance of clothing. A coupled heat and moisture transfer model in a three-layer fabric system while exposing to a low-level thermal radiation was developed in this study. The model simulated the transmitted and stored heat in porous materials, and considered

Suspension flow through porous medium was studied using the Stokesian dynamics simulation method. Stokesian dynamics is an efficient tool to carry out numerical simulations for suspension of rigid particles interacting through hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic forces. After validating the simulation method for a single particle flowing through an array of fixed grain particles, we have analysed the

Abstract We address the problem of initiation of convective motion in the case of a fluid saturated porous layer, containing a salt in solution, which is heated and salted below. We amplify the very interesting recent results of Nield and Kuznetsov and examine in detail a whole range of temperature and salt boundary conditions allowing for a combination of prescribed heat flux and temperature. The

Abstract The 4th order Darcy–Bénard eigenvalue problem for the onset of thermal convection in a 3D rectangular porous box is investigated. We start from a recent 2D model Tyvand et al. (Transp Porous Med 128:633–651, 2019) for a rectangle with handpicked boundary conditions defying separation of variables so that the eigenfunctions are of non-normal mode type. In this paper, the previous 2D model (Tyvand

Abstract The concept of the representative elementary volume (REV) is often associated with the notion of hydrodynamic dispersion and Fickian transport. However, it has been frequently observed experimentally and in numerical pore-scale simulations that transport is non-Fickian and cannot be characterized by hydrodynamic dispersion. Does this mean that the concept of the REV is invalid? We investigate

Abstract The RANS modelling of turbulence across fluid-porous interface regions within ribbed channels has been investigated by applying double (both volume and Reynolds) averaging to the Navier–Stokes equations. In this study, turbulence is represented by using the Launder and Sharma (Lett Heat Mass Transf 1:131–137, 1974) low-Reynolds-number \(k-\varepsilon \) turbulence model, modified via proposals

Abstract Carbon dioxide injection into deep saline aquifers is governed by a number of physico-chemical processes including mineral dissolution and precipitation, multiphase fluid flow, and capillary trapping. These processes can be coupled; however, the impact of fluid–rock reaction on the multiphase flow properties is difficult to study and is not simply correlated with variations in porosity. We

The diffusive behavior of nanoparticles inside porous materials is attracting a lot of interest in the context of understanding, modeling, and optimization of many technical processes. A very powerful technique for characterizing the diffusive behavior of particles in free media is dynamic light scattering (DLS). The applicability of the method in porous media is considered, however, to be rather difficult

Abstract Flow, transport, mechanical, and fracture properties of porous media depend on their morphology and are usually estimated by experimental and/or computational methods. The precision of the computational approaches depends on the accuracy of the model that represents the morphology. If high accuracy is required, the computations and even experiments can be quite time-consuming. At the same

Abstract The emergence of hydrocarbons within shale as a major recoverable resource has sparked interest in fluid transport through these tight mudstones. Recent studies suggest the importance to recovery of microfracture networks that connect localized zones with large organic content to the inorganic matrix. This paper presents a joint modeling and experimental study to examine the onset, formation

Abstract New experimental and numerical techniques constitute the major recent advancements in the study of flow through porous media. However, a model that duly links the micro- and macroscales of this phenomenon is still lacking. Therefore, the present work describes a new, analytical model suitable for both Darcian and post-Darcian flow. Unlike its predecessors, most of which are based on empirical

Abstract There have been several foam field applications in recent years. Foam treatments targeting gas mobility control in injectors as well as gas blocking in production wells have been performed without causing operational problems. The most widely used injection strategy of foam has been injecting alternating slugs of surfactant in brine with gas injection. This procedure seems to be beneficial

Abstract The mobility of gas is greatly reduced when the injected gas is foamed. The reduction in gas mobility is attributed to the reduction in gas relative permeability and the increase in gas effective viscosity. The reduction in the gas relative permeability is a consequence of the larger amount of gas trapped when foam is present while the increase in gas effective viscosity is explicitly a function

Abstract Surfactant-alternating-gas (SAG) is a favored method of foam injection, in part because of excellent gas injectivity. However, liquid injectivity is usually very poor in SAG. We report a core-flood study of liquid injectivity under conditions like those near an injection well in SAG application in the field, i.e., after a prolonged period of gas injection following foam. We inject foam [gas

Abstract We study the generation and flow of foam through rough-walled, fractured marble rocks that mimic natural fracture systems in carbonate reservoirs. Flow was isolated to the fracture network because of the very low rock permeability of the marble samples and foam generated in situ during co-injection of surfactant solution and gas. The foam apparent viscosities were calculated at steady pressure

Abstract Foam generation and transport in porous media are a proven method to improve the sweep efficiency of a flooding fluid in enhanced oil recovery process and increase the effectiveness of a treatment fluid in well intervention procedures. Foam in the porous media is often generated using surfactant alternating gas or co-injection. Although these operations result in good incremental production

Abstract CO2 injection is one of the most promising techniques to enhance oil recovery. However, an unfavorable mobility ratio, reservoir heterogeneity and gravity segregation can reduce the macroscopic sweep efficiency. In situ foaming of injected CO2 is the method that has the most potential for improving sweep efficiency based on controlling CO2 mobility. This study investigates the foaming behavior

A laboratory study of principal immiscible gas flooding schemes is reported. Very well-controlled experiments on continuous gas injection, water-alternating-gas (WAG) and alkaline–surfactant–foam (ASF) flooding were conducted. The merits of WAG and ASF compared to continuous gas injection were examined. The impact of ultra-low oil–water (o/w) interfacial tension (IFT), an essential feature of the ASF

Abstract Flow of nitrogen foam stabilized by alpha olefin sulfonate (C14-16 AOS) was studied in a natural sandstone porous media using X-ray Computed Tomography. Foam was generated by a simultaneous injection of gas and surfactant solution into a porous medium initially saturated with the surfactant solution. It was found that the foam undergoes a transition from a weak to a strong state at a characteristic

Abstract Foam is to be used as a blocking agent for confining a pollutant source zone and avoid spreading in an aquifer. To this end, it is necessary to determine where injected foam flows and stays inside a porous medium. This study examines the use of electrical resistivity tomography for this purpose. Foam is injected in a large-scale 3D heterogeneous porous medium (0.84 × 0.84 × 0.84 m). During

Nano-remediation is a promising in situ remediation technology. It consists in injecting reactive nanoparticles (NPs) into the subsurface for the displacement or the degradation of contaminants. However, due to the poor mobility control of the reactive nanoparticle suspension, the application of nano-remediation has some major challenges, such as high mobility of the particles, which may favor override

Abstract Foam is promising for the remediation of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL) source zones; however, the production of foam and its behavior in porous media are poorly understood. A methodology for the selection of surfactants suitable for foam production applied to NAPL remediation was developed. Two criteria were initially used for surfactant selection: foamability as evaluated by the Ross–Miles

Abstract Models for simulating foam-based displacements fall into two categories: population-balance (PB) models that derive explicitly foam texture or bubble size from pore-level mechanisms related to lamellas generation and coalescence, and steady-state semi-empirical (SE) models that account implicitly for foam texture effects through a gas mobility reduction factor. This mobility reduction factor

Abstract This study investigates how to determine the optimal supercritical CO2 foam injection strategies, in terms of total injection rate (or injection pressure, equivalently) and injection foam quality, to place injected foams deep and far into the reservoir. Two different mechanisms that limit field foam propagation, such as “conversion from strong foam to weak foam” and “gravity segregation,”