Collaborative Research: Interfacial Dynamics in Multi-Phase Flow and Transport Processes

Gray0337535我们建议进行综合研究的作用界面特性（面积，曲率和薄膜）的流体和溶质在多孔介质中的流动，特别注意这些变量如何涉及到低饱和度现象。主要目的是以微米分辨率对这些界面特性进行成像和量化，随后使用测量结果与现有理论和新理论以及新的孔隙尺度数值模型开发进行比较和推进。因此，我们预计能够改进理论和数值模型，以更好地包括界面特征，并更好地了解它们在多相流和运输中的作用。在孔隙尺度上对这些特征的透彻理解将使我们能够约束多相流理论，从而可以基于合理的热力学原理实现宏观尺度的描述。在微观尺度上直接求解守恒方程在理论上是可能的，但由于孔隙空间的几何形状复杂，实际上对于任何真实的体系都是不可能的。因此，有必要采用平均程序来改变尺度，以便可以应用控制方程。一个复杂的孔隙尺度的几何形状及其相关的流体分布可以使用格子Bolzmann方法进行最佳模拟，使我们能够使用数值模拟，除了理论研究的平均过程。通过提高我们在孔隙尺度上的洞察力，使用理论和数值建模方法，我们将处于更好的位置，以开发一个合理的宏观描述，这将是朝着更大规模预测方向迈出的中间一步，例如那些与地下污染物的清理有关的预测，改进农业灌溉和施肥实践，以及提高石油采收率的问题。将实验、理论和模拟集成在一个项目中，为建立具有预测能力的多相流现场规模模型提供了良好的基本基础。测量界面特性的细节，如这里所建议的，只是最近才成为技术上可行的，并将这些信息纳入理论和数值模型将提供关键的新的洞察所涉及的过程。

Gray0337535We propose to conduct an integrated study of the role of interfacial characteristics (area, curvature, and thin films) on the flow of fluids and solutes in porous media, with particular attention to how these variables pertain to low saturation phenomena. The principle aim is to image and quantify these interfacial characteristics with micron resolution and subsequently use the measurements for comparison to and advancement of existing and new theory, as well as new pore-scale numerical model developments. As a result, we anticipate being able to improve both theory and numerical models to better include interfacial features and obtain an improved understanding of their role in multi-phase flow and transport. A thorough understanding of these features at the pore scale will allow us to constrain multi-phase flow theory such that a macroscale description can be achieved based on sound thermodynamic principles. The direct solution of conservation equations at the microscale is possible in theory, but impossible in practice for any real system due to the complex geometry of the pore space. Thus it is necessary to employ an averaging procedure to change the scale such that the governing equations can be applied. A complex pore-scale geometry and its associated distribution of fluids can be optimally simulated using the Lattice-Bolzmann approach, allowing us to investigate the averaging procedure using numerical simulations in addition to theory. By improving our insight at the pore-scale, using both theoretical and numerical modeling approaches, we will be in a far better position for developing a sound macroscopic description, which will be an intermediate step in the direction of larger scale predictions, such as those pertaining to clean-up of contaminants in the subsurface, improved agricultural irrigation and fertilization practices, as well as issues in enhanced oil recovery. Integration of experiments, theory, and simulation in a single project offers the best hope of developing a sound fundamental basis on which to build field scale models of multiphase flow that have predictive capability. Measuring interfacial properties in such detail as suggested here has only recently become technically feasible, and the incorporation of this information in both theory and numerical models is going to provide critical new insight into the processes involved.