Efficient flow and transport simulations in reconstructed 3D pore geometries

Journal article (2010)

Authors

Yan Zaretskiy Heriot-Watt University

S. Geiger Heriot-Watt University

Ken Sorbie Heriot-Watt University

Malte Förster Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Affiliation

External organisation

Finite element Algebraic multigrid Pore-scale modeling Solute transport Navier-Stokes equation Finite volume

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Published Date

2010-12

Language

English

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Abstract

Upscaling pore-scale processes into macroscopic quantities such as hydrodynamic dispersion is still not a straightforward matter for porous media with complex pore space geometries. Recently it has become possible to obtain very realistic 3D geometries for the pore system of real rocks using either numerical reconstruction or micro-CT measurements. In this work, we present a finite element-finite volume simulation method for modeling single-phase fluid flow and solute transport in experimentally obtained 3D pore geometries. Algebraic multigrid techniques and parallelization allow us to solve the Stokes and advection-diffusion equations on large meshes with several millions of elements. We apply this method in a proof-of-concept study of a digitized Fontainebleau sandstone sample. We use the calculated velocity to simulate pore-scale solute transport and diffusion. From this, we are able to calculate the a priori emergent macroscopic hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient of the porous medium for a given molecular diffusion D_m of the solute species. By performing this calculation at a range of flow rates, we can correctly predict all of the observed flow regimes from diffusion dominated to convection dominated.