Porous Media

Understanding the role of thin films in porous media is vital to elucidate wettability at the pore level. The type and thickness of films coating pore walls determine reservoir wettability and whether or not reservoir rock can be altered from its initial state of wettability. Pore shape, especial& pore wall curvature, is important in determining wetting-film thicknesses. Yet, pore shape and physics of thin wetting films are generally neglected in flow models in porous rocks. Thin-film forces incorporated into a collection of star-shaped capillary tubes model describe the geological development of mixed wettability in reservoir rock. Here, mixed wettability refers to continuous and distinct oil and water-wetting surfaces coexisting in the porous medium. This model emphasizes the remarkable role of thin films.

Interfacial interactions, namely interfacial tension, wettability, capillarity and interfacial mass transfer are known to govern fluid distribution and behavior in porous media. Therefore the interfacial interactions between CO 2 , brine and oil and/or gas reservoirs have a significant influence on the effectiveness of any CO 2 storage operations. However, data and knowledge of interfacial properties in storage conditions are scarce. This issue becomes particularly true in the case of deep saline aquifers where limited, economically driven, data collection and archiving are available. In this paper, we present a complete set of brine-CO 2 interfacial tension data at pressure, temperature and salinity conditions, representative of a CO 2 storage operation. A semi-empirical correlation is proposed to calculate the interfacial tension from the experimental data. Wettability is studied at pore scale, using glass micromodels in order to track fluids distribution as a function of the thermodynamic properties and wettability conditions for water-CO 2 systems. With this approach, we show that, in strongly hydrophilic porous media, the CO 2 does not wet the solid surface whereas; if the porous media has less hydrophilic properties the CO 2 significantly wets the surface.

One of the approaches suggested for sequestering C02 is by injecting it in coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs. Despite its potential importance for C02 sequestration, to our knowledge, C02 injection in CBM reservoirs for the purpose of sequestration has not been widely studied. Furthermore, a key element missing in most of the existing studies is the comprehensive characterization of the CBM reservoir structure. CBM reservoirs are complex porous media, since in addition to their primary pore structure, generated during coal formation, they also contain a variety of fractures, which may potentially play a key role in C02 sequestration, as they generally provide high permeability flow paths for both CO2 and C&. In this report we present an overview of our ongoing experimental and modeling efforts, which aim to investigate the injection, adsorption and sequestration of CO2 in CBM reservoirs, the enhanced C& production that results, as well as the main factors that affect the overall operation. We describe the various experimental techniques that we utilize, and discuss their range of application and the value of the data generated. We conclude with a brief overview of our modeling efforts aiming to close the knowledge gap and fill the need in this area. ..

Fluids in porous media are commonly studied with analytical or simulation methods, usually assuming that the host medium is rigid. By evaluating the substrate’s response (relaxation) to the presence of the fluid we assess the error inherent in that assumption. One application is a determination of the ground state of 3He in slit and cylindrical pores. With the relaxation, there results a much stronger cohesion than would be found for a rigid host. Similar increased binding effects of relaxation are found for classical fluids confined within slit pores or nanotube bundles.

Predictions of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) releases are sensitive to the nonwetting phase relative permeability-saturation (k r,N -S) constitutive relationships employed in numerical models. In this study, hysteretic k r,N -S curves were measured for a variety of sands, revealing trends in k r,N -S function shapes that were correlated to sand type. To explore the significance of this conclusion, numerical simulations of a fixed volume DNAPL release were conducted using 10 realisations of a spatially correlated, random permeability field. Simulations assuming homogeneity of relative permeability were compared to those employing the determined functional dependence of relative permeability on porous media properties. The simulations demonstrate both temporal and spatial sensitivity. The time for DNAPL migration to cease is shorter, and the ultimate extent of DNAPL invasion is greater, in those simulations using the traditional assumption that k r,N -S is uniform and not correlated to porous media type.

We investigate the critical speeding up of heat equilibration by the piston effect (PE) in a nearly supercritical van der Waals (vdW) fluid confined in a homogeneous porous medium. We perform an asymptotic analysis of the averaged linearized mass, momentum and energy equations to describe the response of the medium to a boundary heat flux. While nearing the critical point (CP), we find two universal crossovers depending on porosity, intrinsic permeability and viscosity. Closer to the CP than the first crossover, a pressure gradient appears in the bulk due to viscous effects, the PE characteristic time scale stops decreasing and tends to a constant. In infinitly long samples the temperature penetration depth is larger than the diffusion one indicating that the PE in porous media is not a finite size effect as it is in pure fluids. Closer to the CP, a second cross over appears which is characterized by a pressure gradient in the thermal boundary layer (BL). Beyond this second crossover, the PE time remains constant, the expansion of the fluid in the BL drops down and the PE ultimately fades away.

Transport of emulsions in porous media is relevant to several subsurface applications. Many enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes lead to emulsion formation and as a result conformance originating in the flow of a dispersed phase may arise. In some EOR processes, emulsion is injected directly as a mobility control agent. Modeling the flow of emulsion in porous media is extremely challenging due to the complex nature of the associated flows and numerous interfaces. The descriptions based on effective viscosity are not valid when the drop size is of the same order of magnitude as the pore-throat characteristic length scale. An accurate model of emulsion flow through porous media should describe this local change in mobility. The available filtration models do not take into account the variation of the straining and capturing rates with the local capillary number. In this work, we present experiments of emulsion flow through sandstone cores of different permeability and a first step on a capillary network model that uses experimentally determined pore-level constitutive relationships between flow rate and pressure drop in constricted capillaries to obtain representative macroscopic flow behavior emerging from microscopic emulsion flow at the pore level. A parametric analysis is conducted to study the effect of the permeability and dispersed phase droplet size on the flow response to emulsion flooding in porous media. The network model predictions qualitatively describe the oil-water emulsion flow behavior observed in the experiments.

The question of whether effective diffusivities in porous materials under reactive and nonreactive conditions are equal is addressed. Previous studies had considered the problem with first-order reactions. We study the issue with two nonlinear reactions-a second-order reaction and one governed by the Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Pore network and continuum models of porous media are utilized to estimate the effective diffusivities under reactive and nonreactive conditions. We show that the two effective diffusivities are significantly different. The difference is due to the heterogeneities of the porous material, and the fluctuations that they cause in the spatially varying local concentrations and diffusivities, and can be as large as a few orders of magnitude. Theoretical analysis of diffusion and reactions in porous media is also presented that supports the results of the simulations. In particular, it is shown that the results of pore network simulations cannot be fitted to the classical continuum equation of diffusion and reaction, and that a more complex continuum equation should be used for this purpose. ᭧

The paper deals with the problem of measuring the moisture of agricultural soils by an accurate, on-site, real-time method. The idea is to estimate the moisture by measuring the speed of sound in the medium: the main issue is therefore to determine a precise relationship between the two quantities. To this purpose, the Brutsaert's model for elastic waves in porous media is applied, taking into consideration different kinds of soil of common interest in agriculture. The authors have derived the speed-moisture curves, the conditions for the actual validity of the curves, and the suitable sound frequency for performing the measurement, for a wide range of agricultural soils in different physical conditions. The paper results are therefore the basis to realize an inexpensive and accurate moisture sensor for farmers.

A time-domain formulation for sound propagation in rigid-frame porous media, including waveform attenuation and dispersion, is developed. The new formulation is based on inversion of the relaxation functions from a previous model [Wilson DK, Ostashev VE, Collier SL. J Acoust Soc Am 2004;116:1889-92], thereby casting the convolution integrals in a form amenable to numerical implementation. Numerical techniques are developed that accurately implement the relaxational equations and transparently reduce to previous results in low-and high-frequency limits. The techniques are demonstrated on calculations of outdoor sound propagation involving hills, barriers, and ground surfaces with various material properties. We also compare the relaxation formulation to a widely applied phenomenological model developed by Zwikker and Kosten. The two models can be made equivalent if the resistance constant, structure constant, and compression modulus in the ZK model are allowed to be weakly frequency dependent. But if the ZK parameters are taken to be constant, as is typically the case, the relaxation model provides more accurate calculations of attenuation by acoustically soft porous materials such as snow, gravel, and forest litter.

This report summarizes research advances pursued with award funding issued by the DOE to Drexel University through the Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) program. Professor Rich Cairncross was the recipient of this award in 1997. With it he pursued two related research topics under Sandia's guidance that address the outstanding issue of fluid-structural interactions of liquids with deformable solid materials, focusing mainly on the ubiquitous dynamic wetting problem.

In recent years great interest has been posed in imaging techniques like X-ray computed microtomography which in a nondestructive way produce three-dimensional (3D) images of the internal structure of, e.g. porous media. A major challenge lies in the quantitative analysis of the resulting images that allows a more comprehensive and objective characterization of the sample under investigation. A software able to handle and process large 3D image datasets with common hardware is therefore necessary in order to extract morphological and textural information directly from the images. In the present paper the Pore3D software library developed by the SYRMEP research group of the Elettra Synchrotron Light Laboratory in Trieste (Italy) is presented. The library consists of several state-of-the-art functions and procedures for performing filtering, segmentation and quantitative analysis of 3D images. The current status of the project and some applications are here reported.

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Macroscopic balance equations of mass, momentum and energy for compressible Newtonian fluids within a thermoelastic solid matrix are developed as the theoretical basis for wave motion in multiphase deformable porous media. This leads to the rigorous development of the extended Forchheimer terms accounting for the momentum exchange between the phases through the solid-fluid interfaces. An additional relation presenting the deviation (assumed of a lower order of magnitude) from the macroscopic momentum balance equation, is also presented. Nondimensional investigation of the phases' macroscopic balance equations, yield four evolution periods associated with different dominant balance equations which are obtained following an abrupt change in fluid's pressure and temperature. During the second evolution period, the inertial terms are dominant. As a result the momentum balance equations reduce to nonlinear wave equations. Various analytical solutions of these equations are described for the 1-D case. Comparison with literature and verification with shock tube experiments, serve as validation of the developed theory and the computer code. A 1-D TVD-based numerical study of shock wave propagation in saturated porous media, is presented. A parametric investigation using the developed computer code is also given.

The Parlange hysteresis model is reformulated as a pair of recurrence relations to provide relationships between wetting and drying phases to any order. The model is applied to the classical van Genuchten model for soil water retention used as the main wetting curve. The nonphysical behaviour of these retention curves is related to the existence of a point of inflection in the van Genuchten model when it is used for the wetting boundary. Where the van Genuchten form is used as the main drying curve, the Parlange hysteresis model provides an ordinary differential equation describing the main wetting curve. A number of simple analytical solutions, relating to particular values of the parameters of the van Genuchten model, then provide forms for the main wetting curve. In general, a numerical integration is required to generate the main wetting curve, for general values of the parameters of the van Genuchten model. The recurrence relations for the hysteresis cycling are still applicable, even when the main wetting curve is only known numerically. The new main wetting curves do not have inflection points and there is no nonphysical behaviour. The model is then applied to the experimental data of Viaene et al. (1994)

The colloid and radionuclide retardation experiments performed at NAGRA's Grimsel Test Site in Switzerland are part of an international collaboration program designed to collect in situ data on the impacts of colloids on radionuclide transport. In this work, breakthrough behaviors of trivalent americium (i.e., 241 Am and 243 Am) both in the absence and presence of bentonite colloids are analyzed with COLFRAC-a code that models colloid-facilitated solute transport in discretely-fractured, porous media. Model fits to the experimental results indicate that Am sorbed onto mobile colloids, which enhance Am transport relative to a non-sorbing tracer, 131 I. Modelling results suggest that Am is kinetically sorbed onto both naturally occurring and exogenous bentonite colloids. Results also indicate that desorption of Am from colloids is slow with respect to the duration of the experiment. In addition, early colloid breakthrough compared to a conservative tracer suggests the effects of hydrodynamic chromatography. Overall, Am breakthrough curves suggest enhanced mobility due to co-transport with both naturally occurring and bentonite colloids.

A theoretical approach was used to determine the distribution of a poly(methylmethacrylate) cement after its injection into a porous structure. The predictions of the model were then compared to experimental results obtained by injecting a polymethylmethacrylate cement into an open-porous ceramic filter. The goal was to define a model that could predict what factors affect the risk of cement extravasation and hence how the risk of cement extravasation can be minimized. The calculations were based on two important rheological laws: the law of Hagen-Poiseuille and the law of Darcy. The law of Hagen-Poiseuille describes the flow of a fluid in a cylindrical tube. The law of Darcy describes the flow of a fluid through a porous media. The model predicted that the extravasation risk was decreased when the cement viscosity, the bone pore size, the bone permeability and the bone porosity were increased, and when the diameter of the extravasation path and the viscosity of the marrow were decreased. Experimentally, the effect of the marrow viscosity and extravasation path could be evidenced. Therefore, the model was believed to be an adequate approximation of the experimental behavior. In conclusion, the experimental results demonstrated that the model was adequate and that the best practical way to decrease the risk of extravasation is to increase the cement viscosity. r

Models of two phase flows in porous media, used in petroleum engineering, lead to a system of two coupled equations with elliptic and parabolic degenerate terms, and two unknowns, the saturation and the pressure. For the purpose of their approximation, a coupled scheme, consisting in a finite volume method together with a phase-by-phase upstream weighting scheme, is used in the industrial setting. This paper presents a mathematical analysis of this coupled scheme, first showing that it satisfies some a priori estimates: the saturation is shown to remain in a fixed interval, and a discrete L 2 (0, T ; H 1 (Ω)) estimate is proved for both the pressure and a function of the saturation. Thanks to these properties, a subsequence of the sequence of approximate solutions is shown to converge to a weak solution of the continuous equations as the size of the discretization tends to zero.

1] Intermittent filtration through porous media used for water and wastewater treatment can achieve high pathogen and colloid removal efficiencies. To predict the removal of bacteria, the effects of cyclic infiltration and draining events (transient unsaturated flow) were investigated. Using physical micromodels, we visualized the intermittent transport of bacteria and other colloids in unsaturated porous media. Column experiments provided quantitative measurements of the phenomena observed at the pore scale. Tagged Escherichia coli and a conservative tracer (NaI) were introduced in an initial pulse into a 1.5 m sand column. Subsequent hydraulic flushes without tagged bacteria or tracer were repeated every 4 hours for the next 4 days, during which outflow concentrations were monitored. Breakthrough behavior between colloids and dissolved tracer differed significantly, reflecting the differences in transport processes. Advancement of the wetting front remobilized bacteria which were held in thin water films, attached to the airwater interface (AWI), or entrapped in stagnant pore water between gas bubbles. In contrast, the tracer was only remobilized by diffusion from immobile to mobile water. Remobilization led to successive concentration peaks of bacteria and tracer in the effluent but with significant temporal differences. Observations at the pore-scale indicated that the colloids were essentially irreversibly attached to the solid-water interface, which explained to some extent the high removal efficiency of microbes in the porous media. Straining, cluster filtration, cell lysis, protozoa grazing, and bacteriophage parasitism could also contribute to the removal efficiency of bacteria.

This work is focused on the analysis of non-linear flows of slightly compressible fluids in porous media not adequately described by Darcy's law. We study a class of generalized nonlinear momentum equations which covers all three well-known Forchheimer equations, the so-called two-term, power, and three-term laws. The non-linear Forchheimer equation is inverted to a non-linear Darcy equation with implicit permeability tensor depending on the pressure gradient. This results in a degenerate parabolic equation for the pressure. Two classes of boundary conditions are considered, given pressure and given total flux. In both cases they are allowed to be unbounded in time. The uniqueness, Lyapunov and asymptotic stabilities, and other long-time dynamical features of the corresponding initial boundary value problems are analyzed. The results obtained in this paper have clear hydrodynamic interpretations and can be used for quantitative evaluation of engineering parameters. Some numerical simulations are also included.

Particulate emissions from diesel engines are a serious environmental problem in urban areas. Driven by tighter and tighter regulations, a continuous research and development activity is in progress focused on downstream applications (i.e. exhaust emission after treatment), especially for fuel efficient, lean-burn vehicles, either diesel or spark ignited. This contribution is focused on the development of a new soot combustion catalyst (i.e. the PrCrO 3 perovskite on CeO 2 prepared by combustion synthesis) and a catalytic wall-flow trap, as well as on pilot plant tests carried out on a diesel engine bench. A comparison with literature data concerning Pt/Al 2 O 3 -catalysed traps is outlined showing improved performance for the new catalyst formulation.

In this study we extend the results given in a previous report regarding the propagation features of high-frequency energy in slender structures to the case of three-dimensional porous media. The mathematical theory of microlocal analysis of hyperbolic partial differential equations shows that the energy associated to their high-frequency solutions (in a sense to be precised) satisfies Liouville-type transport equations, or radiative transfer equations for randomly heterogeneous materials. For long propagation times these equations can be asymptotically approached by diffusion equations. Some classical results of the engineering mechanics literature about the heat conduction analogy and the statistical energy analysis of structural vibrations at high frequencies are recovered in this process. The purpose of this report is to focus on such a diffusive regime for isotropic porous media.

The main purpose of geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) used in cover systems is to limit the in"ltration of water to the wastes disposed underneath. In many situations however, the cover system should also be able to limit gas #ux, so that undesirable products emitted from the wastes, like radon or methane, will not escape to the atmosphere. In other situations, covers may have to prevent oxygen from the atmosphere to come into contact with reactive materials, such as sulphidic tailings that could otherwise generate acid. It is thus important for cover design to evaluate gas #ux through the GCL used in the system. This gas #ux is usually controlled by di!usion through the porous media, because such highly saturated "ne grained materials have a very low gas permeability. In this paper, the authors brie#y review the basic theory used to calculate di!usive gas #ux F , and introduce an experimental procedure to evaluate, in the laboratory, the e!ective di!usion coe$cient D which controls this #ux. Experimental results obtained on a nonwoven needlepunched GCL are shown and compared to values ensuing from a predictive model that relates D to porosity and degree of saturation. Sample calculations on gas #ux in cover systems are "nally presented and discussed. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-potential electric and magnetic anomalies are increasingly being observed associated with hydrothermal fields, volcanic activity, and subsurface water flow. Until now a formal theoretical basis for predicting streaming potential of porous materials has not been available. We develop here a model giving both the macroscopic constitutive equations and the material properties entering these equations. The material properties, like the streaming potential coupling coefficient, depend on pore fluid salinity, temperature, water and gas saturations, mean grain diameter, and porosity. Some aspects of the model are directly tested with success against laboratory data. The streaming potential increases with temperature, grain size, and gas saturation, and decreases with salinity. At the scale of geological structures the model provides an explanation for the presence of kilometer-scale dipolar self-potential anomalies in geothermal systems and volcanoes. Positive self-potential anomalies are associated with fluid discharge areas, whereas negative self-potential anomalies are associated with fluid recharge areas. Self-potential anomaly maps determined at the surface of active hydrothermal fields appear to be a powerful way of mapping the fluid recharge and discharge areas. In the case of free convection the vorticities of the convection pattern generate a magnetic field. The greater these vorticities, the greater the associated magnetic field. It follows that hydrothermal systems act as natural geobatteries because of the flow of pore fluids in the subsurface of these systems.

We describe here a new experimental device developed for the study of a combustion front propagation in a reactive medium: crushed oil shale (500 to 1000 µm). We are interested in the propagation of a front supplied by air in co-current. The cell is a vertical cylinder of 90mm internal diameter and 300mm height, made up of an insulating material. To start the combustion and to obtain a plane flame front, it was set up a sophisticated device of ignition, namely the cone calorimeter. The reactor is finely instrumented. A whole of thermocouples makes it possible to measure the temperature along the axis for the cell and over a horizontal cross section (at middle height) of the packed bed. The pressure drop and the total mass of the particle bed are continuously recording. A new device was developed and set up to improve the physicochemical investigation of the structure of the flame front: micro-sampling. Its originality lies in the possibility of micro sampling gas at a fined point in...

Industrial processes where the heating of large surfaces is required lead to the possibility of using large surface porous radiant burners. This causes additional temperature uniformity problems, since it is increasingly difficult to evenly distribute the reactant mixture over a large burner surface while retaining its stability and keeping low pollutant emissions. In order to allow for larger surface area burners, a nonuniform velocity profile mechanism for flame stabilization in a porous radiant burner using a single large injection hole is proposed and analyzed for a double-layered burner operating in open and closed hot (laboratory-scale furnace, with temperature-controlled, isothermal walls) environments. In both environments, local mean temperatures within the porous medium have been measured. For lower reactant flow rate and ambient temperature the flame shape is conical and anchored at the rim of the injection hole. As the volumetric flow rate or furnace temperature is raised, the flame undergoes a transition to a plane flame stabilized near the external burner surface. However, the stability range envelope remains the same in both regimes.

We investigate the origin of the deviations from the classical Darcy law by numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations in two-dimensional disordered porous media. We apply the Forchheimer equation as a phenomenological model to correlate the variations of the friction factor for different porosities and flow conditions. At sufficiently high Reynolds numbers, when inertia becomes relevant, we observe a transition from linear to nonlinear behavior which is typical of experiments. We find that such a transition can be understood and statistically characterized in terms of the spatial distribution of kinetic energy in the system. [S0031-9007(99)09541-1]

The concept of permeability of porous media is discussed, and a modification of Kozeny's permeability equation to include the effect of effective porosity is introduced. An analytical expression for the specific surface area of a system constructed of randomly placed identical obstacles with unrestricted overlap is derived, and a lattice-gas cellular automaton method is then used to simulate the dependence on porosity of permeability, tortuosity, and effective porosity for a flow of Newtonian uncompressible fluid in this twodimensional porous substance. The simulated permeabilities can well be explained by the concept of effective porosity, and the exact form of the specific surface area. The critical exponent of the permeability near the percolation threshold is also determined from the simulations.

Correlations are presented to compute the mutual solubilities of CO2 and chloride brines at temperatures 12–300°C, pressures 1–600 bar (0.1–60 MPa), and salinities 0–6 m NaCl. The formulation is computationally efficient and primarily intended for numerical simulations of CO2-water flow in carbon sequestration and geothermal studies. The phase-partitioning model relies on experimental data from literature for phase partitioning between CO2 and NaCl brines, and extends the previously published correlations to higher temperatures. The model relies on activity coefficients for the H2O-rich (aqueous) phase and fugacity coefficients for the CO2-rich phase. Activity coefficients are treated using a Margules expression for CO2 in pure water, and a Pitzer expression for salting-out effects. Fugacity coefficients are computed using a modified Redlich–Kwong equation of state and mixing rules that incorporate asymmetric binary interaction parameters. Parameters for the calculation of activity and fugacity coefficients were fitted to published solubility data over the P–T range of interest. In doing so, mutual solubilities and gas-phase volumetric data are typically reproduced within the scatter of the available data. An example of multiphase flow simulation implementing the mutual solubility model is presented for the case of a hypothetical, enhanced geothermal system where CO2 is used as the heat extraction fluid. In this simulation, dry supercritical CO2 at 20°C is injected into a 200°C hot-water reservoir. Results show that the injected CO2 displaces the formation water relatively quickly, but that the produced CO2 contains significant water for long periods of time. The amount of water in the CO2 could have implications for reactivity with reservoir rocks and engineered materials.

The Bruggeman approximation has widely been used for estimating the effective conductivity and diffusivity of both the catalyst and gas diffusion layers of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. This approximation is based on the Bruggeman's Effective Medium Theory [Bruggeman D. Berechnung verschiedener physikalischer konstanten von heterogenen substanzen. Ann Phys (Leipzig) 1935;24:636-79], which provides empirical correlation for the effective properties of a composite system. Since it is an empirical correlation, a unique correlation based on the Bruggeman approximation does not always hold for the PEM fuel cell effective properties. Rather, the Bruggeman correlation is a cell specific and experiment dependent correlation that depends on structure, phase composition, water saturation, experimental parameters, etc. Further, this correlation needs to be combined with other correlations to estimate the effective diffusivities. In this article, a set of mathematical formulations has been proposed for the effective transport properties in both the catalyst and gas diffusion layers of a PEM fuel cell. The effective conductivity and diffusivity expressions are derived from the mathematical formulations of the Hashin Coated Sphere model [Hashin Z. The elastic moduli of heterogeneous materials. J Appl Mech 1962;29:143-50], which provides an identical mathematical foundation for each of these effective properties rather than an empirical correlation and avoid to use of multiple correlations together. The present model formulations agree well with the results available in literature for the limiting case. Hence, the proposed formulations for the effective transport properties will be a useful estimating tool in the numerical modeling of PEM fuel cells.

Effluent organic matter Managed aquifer recharge Riverbank filtration Biotransformation Co-metabolism Primary substrate a b s t r a c t This study explored the effect of different bulk organic carbon matrices on the fate of trace organic chemicals (TOrC) during managed aquifer recharge (MAR). Infiltration through porous media was simulated in biologically active column experiments under aerobic and anoxic recharge conditions. Wastewater effluent derived organic carbon types, differing in hydrophobicity and biodegradability (i. e., hydrophobic acids, hydrophilic carbon, organic colloids), were used as feed substrates in the column experiments. These carbon substrates while fed at the same concentration differed in their ability to support soil biomass growth during porous media infiltration. Removal of degradable TOrC (with the exception of diclofenac and propyphenazone) was equal or better under aerobic versus anoxic porous media infiltration conditions. During the initial phase of infiltration, the presence of biodegradable organic carbon (BDOC) enhanced the decay of degradable TOrC by promoting soil biomass growth, suggesting that BDOC served as a co-substrate in a cometabolic transformation of these contaminants. However, unexpected high removal efficiencies were observed for all degradable TOrC in the presence of low BDOC concentrations under well adopted oligotrophic conditions. It is hypothesized that removal under these conditions is caused by a specialized microbial community growing on refractory carbon substrates such as hydrophobic acids. Findings of this study reveal that the concentration and character of bulk organic carbon present in effluents affect the degradation efficiency for TOrC during recharge operation. Specifically aerobic, oligotrophic microbiological soil environments present favorable conditions for the transformation of TOrC, including rather recalcitrant compounds such as chlorinated flame retardants. (J.E. Drewes). A v a i l a b l e a t w w w . s c i e n c e d i r e c t . c o m j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / w a t r e s 0043-1354/$ -see front matter ª w a t e r r e s e a r c h 4 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 4 4 9 -4 6 0

The extended Darcy's law is a commonly used equation for the description of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. It dates back to the 1940s and is essentially an empirical relationship. According to the extended Darcy's law, pressure gradient and gravity are the only driving forces for the flow of each fluid. Within the last two decades, more advanced and physically based descriptions for multiphase flow in porous media have been developed. In this work, the extended Darcy's law is compared to a thermodynamically consistent approach which explicitly takes the important role of phase interfaces into account, both as entities and as parameters. In this theoretically derived approach, forces related to capillarity and interfaces appear as driving/resisting forces, in addition to the traditional terms. It turns out that the extended Darcy's law and the thermodynamically based approach are compatible if either (i) relative permeabilities are a function of saturation only, but capillary pressure is a function of saturation and specific interfacial area or (ii) relative permeabilities are a function of saturation and saturation gradients. Theoretical considerations suggest that the former alternative is only valid in case of reversible displacement while in the general case (irreversible displacement), the latter alternative is relevant.

Strain localisation in soils and rocks has been studied extensively for the last 20 years. A part of these studies have been devoted to the response of specimens submitted to tests in undrained situation. It was shown that shear banding can take place in both contractive and dilative specimens, with some special features due to the coupling between the granular skeleton and the pore fluid. In the paper, the relevance of the bifurcation criterion in shear band mode in the case of hydromechanical coupling is assessed by numerical study of the response of the constitutive model CLoE -the Hypoplastic model developed in L3S-Grenoble-in two kinds of numerical integration: local, i.e. at the material point level and global, i.e. in boundary value problems analyzed by finite elements.

Modelling of food processing is complex because it involves sophisticated material and transport phenomena. Most of the agricultural products such fruits and vegetables are hygroscopic porous media containing free water, bound water, gas and solid matrix. Considering all phase in modelling is still not developed. In this article, a comprehensive porous media model for drying has been developed considering bound water, free water separately, as well as water vapour and air. Free water transport was considered as diffusion, pressure driven and evaporation. Bound water assumed to be converted to free water due to concentration difference and also can diffuse. Binary diffusion between water vapour and air was considered. Since, the model is fundamental physics based it can be applied to any drying applications and other food processing where heat and mass transfer takes place in porous media with significant evaporation and other phase change.

Chemotaxis is defined as the self-generated displacement of motile microbes in the direction of an increasing concentration gradient of a chemoattractant or a decreasing concentration gradient of a chemorepellent. This work presents a Monte Carlo computer simulation of the chemotactic response in porous media. The model is based on the idealized Happel cell model underlying the colloid filtration theory (CFT), which describes the physical and chemical forces acting on an inert particle in flow through porous media. The premise of the model presented here is that bacterial chemotaxis in porous media can be successfully modeled by integrating cellular dynamics simulations with CFT particle trajectory analysis. At each time step a stochastic algorithm chooses a chemotactic velocity to be superimposed onto the deterministic velocity obtained by analytical solution for Stokes flow around the Happel sphere. The model calculates a value for the collection efficiency (the fundamental CFT parameter η) with the effects of chemotaxis incorporated. The collection efficiency is defined as the fraction of particles approaching the Happel sphere, termed the collector, that actually collides with the collector. CFT has been used extensively for the modeling of particle deposition in water treatment processes and, more recently, bacterial transport in groundwater. However, there has been little rigorous examination of the theory since it was developed in the mid-1970s. Thus, in addition to the treatment of chemotaxis, this paper provides an analysis of the theoretical underpinnings of CFT. Preliminary results suggest that chemotaxis may significantly affect η under certain conditions. 10.

A one-dimensional model to determine the laminar ow of a uid in a porous channel with wall suction or injection is proposed. The approach is based on the integration of the Navier-Stokes equations using the analytical solutions for the two-dimensional local velocity and pressure ÿelds obtained from the asymptotic developments at low ÿltration Reynolds number proposed by Berman (J. Appl. Phys. 24 (1953) 1232) and Yuan and Finkelstein (Trans. ASME 74 . It is noticeable that the resulting one-dimensional model preserves the whole ow properties, in particular the inertial terms which can a ect the wall suction conditions and the spatial distribution of the growing particle cake layer at the wall encountered in ÿltration processes. The model is validated in the case of a single porous channel of rectangular or circular cross-section with uniform or variable wall suction. Then the model is applied to a two-dimensional multi-channel system which consists of a great number of adjacent entrance and exit channels connected by a ÿlter porous medium. It is shown that the e ect of non-uniform boundary conditions and the in uence of heterogeneous geometrical characteristics on the heterogeneity of the uid ow structure can be studied using such a model. ?

Heat is transported in aquifers by advection and conduction. Spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity causes fluctuations in small scale advection, whose effect can be represented by a dispersion term. However, the use of this term is still subject to controversy among modelers. The effect of heterogeneity on the heat plume generated by a groundwater heat exchanger (GHE) in a three-dimensional aquifer under steady state conditions is examined. Transverse dispersion is estimated using a stochastic approach in which a distinction between effective and ensemble dispersion coefficients is made. The former quantifies the typical width of the heat plume and the latter takes into account the uncertainty of the lateral plume position. Simulations show that transverse dispersion is proportional to the variance and correlation length of the log-conductivity field. On the one hand, the ensemble transverse dispersion coefficient, which can be used for risk analysis to find the mean temperature and the potential plume spread, is high near the heat source and then decreases. On the other hand, the effective transverse dispersion coefficient, the one required to simulate actual temperature values and plume width, displays a less marked dependence on the distance from the source. For modeling purposes it can be approximated as a T % 0:02r 2 ln K L x , where r 2 ln K is the variance of the log-conductivity field and L x its correlation length in the mean flow direction. However, a zero dispersion should be used to compute the energy dissipated by the GHE.

Storage of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in hydrocarbon reservoirs and saline aquifers is considered as one of the promising mitigation strategies to reduce the negative impact of this greenhouse gas. The static and dynamic behaviour of CO 2 in these storage sites which are located at various depths and geographical locations, affects the efficiency of this strategy. Understanding the impact of the conditions of these storage sites on mechanisms involved in CO 2 flow, displacement and trapping is also critical for the purpose of site selection and the design of CO 2 storage projects.

We present an analysis of mixed convection boundary layer flow of an incompressible and electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid over a linearly stretching surface embedded in a porous medium. The momentum equation includes the effect of the buoyancy force due to free convection. The thermal equation includes the effects of thermal radiation and viscous dissipation. We consider two general types of nonisothermal boundary conditions, namely, prescribed surface temperature and prescribed heat flux. The governing partial differential equations for the fluid flow and temperature are reduced to a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations which are solved analytically using the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Convergence of the HAM solutions is discussed in detail. The effects of various parameters on the skin friction coefficient and wall heat transfer are presented along with plots of the velocity and temperature profiles.

Nowadays different kinds of double-skin facades are developed and used in new architectural projects. The aim of these facades is, on the one hand, to increase internal comfort and, on the other hand, to decrease energy consumption. In order to optimise the overall performance of the double-skin façades, their detailed behaviour needs to be better understood. The prediction of the airflow within the channel (between the two glazings) is very important for understanding of the double-skin facades behaviour, especially in summer conditions. A comprehensive modelling of a compact double-skin facade equipped with a venetian blind and forced ventilation is proposed here. The modelling is done using the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) approach to assess the air movement within the ventilated facade channel. Three-dimensional airflow is modelled using a homogeneous porous media representation, in order to reduce the size of the mathematical model. A parametric study is proposed here, analysing the impact of three parameters on the airflow development: slat tilt angle, blind position and air outlet position. The distance between the blind and the external glazing was found to have a major impact on the velocity profiles inside the double-skin facade channel.

This paper presents a study on the deformation of anisotropic fibrous porous media subjected to moistening by water in the liquid phase. The deformation of the medium is studied by applying the concept of effective stress. Given the structure of the medium, the displacement of the solid matrix is not taken into account with respect to the displacement of the liquid phase. The transport equations are derived from the model proposed by Narasimhan. The transport coefficients and the relation between the variation in apparent density and effective stress are obtained by test measurements. A numerical model has been established and applied for studying drip moistening of mineral wool samples capable or incapable of deformation.

This work presents a specific application of a new powder rheometer prototype, for the characterization of liquid-impregnated particles which are used in chemical engineering for gas treatment on fixed beds. This new type of rheological characterization can provide useful information about the surface state of the particles and could contribute to the optimization of the impregnation process. The rheometer, consisting of a stress-imposed rheometer coupled with a vibrating cell, generates a Brownian-like motion at a macroscopic scale which makes the sample behave as a non-Newtonian condensed fluid, and allows rheological property measurements of powders which are very sensitive to changes on their surface. Their rheological behavior and its relationship with the impregnation ratio have been analyzed for several samples having different impregnation ratios, thanks to a free volume structural model taking into account the shear rate, the frictional stress, the granular pressure, the vibration frequency, the vibration energy, the free volume distribution and the mass of the samples. The resulting interpretation suggests a stepped kinetic of impregnation: first the liquid adsorbs on the surface of the silica matrix, then it fills progressively the pores, and finally it coats the outer surface of the particles.

Dissolved substances derived from soil may interact with both soil surfaces and with arsenic and subsequently influence arsenic mobility and species transformation. The purpose of this study was to investigate arsenic transport and transformation in porous media with a specific focus on the impact of soil-derived dissolved substances, mainly consisting of inorganic colloids and dissolved organic matter (DOM), on these processes. Arsenic transport and transformation through columns, which were packed with uncoated sand (UC) or naturally coated sand (NC) and fed with arsenate (As V) or monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) spiked influents, were investigated in the presence or absence of soil-derived dissolved substances. The presence of soil-derived inorganic colloids and/ or DOM clearly enhanced As transport through the column, with the fraction of As leached out of column (referring to the total amount added) being increased from 23 to 46% (UC) and 21 to 50% (NC) in As V experiments while 46 to 64% (UC) and 28 to 63% (NC) in MMA experiments. The association of arsenic with DOM and the competitive adsorption between arsenic and DOM could account for, at least partly, the enhanced As movement. Distinct species transformation of As during transport through soil columns was observed. When As V was the initial species spiked in the influent solutions, only arsenite (As III) was detected in the effluents for UC columns; while both As III (dominant) and As V were present for NC columns, with As III being the dominant species. When MMA was initially spiked in the influent solutions, all method detectable As species, As III , As V , MMA, and dimethylarsenic acid (DMA) were present in the effluents for both soil columns. These results indicate that risk assessment associated with As contamination, particularly due to previous organoarsenical pesticide applications, should take into account the role of soil-derived dissolved substances in promoting As transport and As species transformation.