10.4122/1.1000000584
Tartakovsky, Alexandre
Alexandre
Tartakovsky
alexandre.tartakovsky@pnl.gov
Scheibe, Timothy
Timothy
Scheibe
tim.scheibe@pnl.gov
Redden, George
George
Redden
george.redden@inl.gov
Fang, Yilin
Yilin
Fang
yilin.fang@pnl.gov
Meakin, Paul
Paul
Meakin
paul.meakin@inl.gov
Saripalli, Prasad
Prasad
Saripalli
prasad.saripalli@pnl.gov
Tartakovsky, Alexandre
Alexandre
Tartakovsky
alexandre.tartakovsky@pnl.gov
Smoothed particle hydrodynamics model for pore-scale flow, reactive transport and mineral precipitation.
XVI International Conference on Computational Methods in Water Resources
2006
2006
We have developed a pore-scale numerical reactive transport model, based on
smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), that incorporates heterogeneous
precipitation/dissolution reactions. Lagrangian particle methods such as SPH have
several advantages for modeling pore-scale flow and transport: i) in a Lagrangian
framework there is no non-linear term in the momentum conservation equation, so that
SPH allows accurate solution of momentum dominated flows; ii) complicated physical
and chemical processes associated with realistic equations of state, changes in
solid boundaries due to dissolution or precipitation and chemical reactions are easy
to simulate. The SPH model was used to study the general effects of porosity, pore
scale heterogeneity, Damkohler numbers and Peclet numbers on reactive transport and
to estimate effective reaction coefficients and mass transfer coefficients. The
changes in porosity, conductivity and transport parameters resulting from mineral
precipitation were also investigated. Hysteresis in the reaction rate coefficient
and mass transport coefficient resulting from changing porosities, mass fluxes and
reactive surface areas was observed. Flow and transport with low Damkohler numbers
and high Peclet numbers was found to result in uniform precipitation. When the
Damkohler number was high and the Peclet number was low, precipitation occurred
mainly around the supersaturated solution injection areas. The pore-scale model was
coupled with a continuum-scale reactive transport model and tested using data from a
mesoscale experimental investigation of calcite precipitation in a porous medium.
The results of the coupled pore-continuum modeling approach are compared to
simulation results from continuum-scale modeling alone with existing formation
damage models drawn from the literature, and to the experimental observations.