Prediction of the low-velocity distribution from the pore structure in simple porous media
Name
PhysRevFluids.2.124103.pdf
Size
4.94 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c8c1d64e9461ec96d2646da277f2ffe5
Author(s)
de Anna, Pietro
Quaife, Bryan
Biros, George
Juanes, Ruben
Date Issued
December 2017
Journal
Physical Review Fluids
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
de Anna, Pietro et al. "Prediction of the low-velocity distribution from the pore structure in simple porous media." Physical Review Fluids 2, 12 (December 2017): 124103 © 2017 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The macroscopic properties of fluid flow and transport through porous media are a direct consequence of the underlying pore structure. However, precise relations that characterize flow and transport from the statistics of pore-scale disorder have remained elusive. Here we investigate the relationship between pore structure and the resulting fluid flow and asymptotic transport behavior in two-dimensional geometries of nonoverlapping circular posts. We derive an analytical relationship between the pore throat size distribution f_{λ}∼λ^{−β} and the distribution of the low fluid velocities f_{u}∼u^{−β/2}, based on a conceptual model of porelets (the flow established within each pore throat, here a Hagen-Poiseuille flow). Our model allows us to make predictions, within a continuous-time random-walk framework, for the asymptotic statistics of the spreading of fluid particles along their own trajectories. These predictions are confirmed by high-fidelity simulations of Stokes flow and advective transport. The proposed framework can be extended to other configurations which can be represented as a collection of known flow distributions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.124103
