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We develop a pore network model for the evaporative drying of macroporous media that accounts for the major pore-scale mechanisms experimentally identified to play an important role on the drying rates and phase distribution patterns. The model accounts for viscous flow through liquid films, gravity and mass transfer, both within the dry medium and also through a mass boundary layer over the external surface of the medium. Also accounted are the heterogeneity of the pore size distribution and pore wall microstructure effects expressed through the degree of corner roundness. The latter plays a major role on the extent of the film region. The model is then used to study capillary, gravity and external mass transfer effects through the variation of the appropriate dimensionless numbers. The effect of gravity is particularly analyzed for the two cases, when gravity is opposing and when it is enhancing drying, respectively. In the latter case, strong mass transfer and viscous forces compared to gravity can prevent instability of the receding evaporation front, leading to a two constant-rate-regime drying curve in agreement with the 1-D theory proposed earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper [Yiotis et al., Phys. Rev. E 85, 046308 (2012)] we developed a model for the drying of porous media in the presence of gravity. It incorporated effects of comer film now, internal and external mass transfer, and the effect of gravity. Analytical results were derived when gravity opposes drying and hence leads to a stable percolation drying front. In this paper, we test the theory using laboratory experiments. A series of isothermal drying experiments in glass bead packings saturated with volatile hydrocarbons is conducted. The transparent glass cells containing the packing allow for the visual monitoring of the phase distribution patterns below the surface, including the formation of liquid films, as the gaseous phase invades the pore space, and for the control of the thickness of the diffusive mass boundary layer over the packing. The experimental results agree very well with theory, provided that the latter is generalized to account for the effects of comer roundness in the film region (which was neglected in the theoretical part). We demonstrate the existence of an early constant rate period (CRP), which lasts as long as the films saturate the surface of the packing, and of a subsequent falling rate period (FRP), which begins practically after the detachment of the film tips from the external surface. During the CRP, the process is controlled by diffusion within the stagnant gaseous phase in the upper part of the cells, yielding a Stefan tube problem solution. During the FRF, the process is controlled by diffusion within the packing, with a drying rate inversely proportional to the observed position of the film tips in the cell. Theoretical and experimental results compare favorably for a specific value of the roundness of the films, which is found to be constant and equal to 0.2 for various conditions, and verify the theoretical dependence on the capillary Ca/, Bond Bo, and Sherwood Sh numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a mathematical model for the drying of porous media in the presence of gravity. The model incorporates effects of corner flow through macroscopic liquid films that form in the cavities of pore walls, mass transfer by diffusion in the dry regions of the medium, external mass transfer over the surface, and the effect of gravity. We consider two different cases: when gravity opposes liquid flow in the comer films and leads to a stable percolation drying front, and when it acts in the opposite direction. In this part, we develop analytical results when the problem can be cast as an equivalent continuum and described as a one-dimensional (ID) problem. This is always the case when gravity acts against drying by opposing corner flow, or when it enhances drying by increasing corner film flow but it is sufficiently small. We obtain results for all relevant variables, including drying rates, extent of the macroscopic film region, and the demarkation of the two different regimes of constant rate period and falling rate period, respectively. The effects of dimensionless variables, such as the bond number, the capillary number, and the Sherwood number for external mass transfer are investigated. When gravity acts to enhance drying, a 1D solution is still possible if an appropriately defined Rayleigh number is above a critical threshold. We derive a linear stability analysis of a model problem under this condition that verifies front stability. Further analysis of this problem, when the Rayleigh number is below critical, requires a pore-network simulator which will be the focus of future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a viscous lock-exchange gravity current, which describes the reciprocal exchange of two fluids of different densities in a horizontal channel, the front between two Newtonian fluids spreads as the square root of time. The resulting diffusion coefficient reflects the competition between the buoyancy-driving effect and the viscous damping, and depends on the geometry of the channel. This lock-exchange diffusion coefficient has already been computed for a porous medium, a two-dimensional (2D) Stokes flow between two parallel horizontal boundaries separated by a vertical height H and, recently, for a cylindrical tube. In the present paper, we calculate it, analytically, for a rectangular channel (horizontal thickness b and vertical height H) of any aspect ratio (H/b) and compare our results with experiments in horizontal rectangular channels for a wide range of aspect ratios (1/10 to 10). We also discuss the 2D Stokes–Darcy model for flows in Hele-Shaw cells and show that it leads to a rather good approximation, when an appropriate Brinkman correction is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of viscous fingers inside three-dimensional (3-D) porous media is studied using an acoustic technique to determine the concentration profile. Three different porous media and a wide range of viscosity ratios and flow rates have been considered. The experimental data support the definition of an instability parameter that characterizes the essential features of the viscous fingering phenomenon. The dependence of this parameter on viscosity ratio, flow rate, and the nature of the medium is compared to theoretical predictions made using a continuum approach. The data demonstrate the predicted crossover between diffusive and linear growth, and the increase of the instability with heterogeneity. The enhancement of the growth rate due to the coupling between large viscosity ratio and velocity-dependent hydrodynamic dispersion is also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effect of dispersion on non-monotonic mobility profile stability in porous media. Analysis on the linear stability due to the absence of dispersion; Inclusion of dispersion followed by a quasi-steady-state approximation in the linear stability; Observation of the difference in the derivative of the mobility.

Autocatalytic reaction fronts between two reacting species in the absence of fluid flow, propagate as solitary waves. The coupling between autocatalytic reaction front and forced simple hydrodynamic flows leads to stationary fronts whose velocity and shape depend on the underlying flow field. We address the issue of the chemico-hydrodynamic coupling between forced advection in porous media and self-sustained chemical waves. Towards that purpose, we perform experiments over a wide range of flow velocities with the well characterized iodate arsenious acid and chlorite-tetrathionate autocatalytic reactions in transparent packed beads porous media. The characteristics of these porous media such as their porosity, tortuosity, and hydrodynamics dispersion are determined. In a pack of beads, the characteristic pore size and the velocity field correlation length are of the order of the bead size. In order to address these two length scales separately, we perform lattice Boltzmann numerical simulations in a stochastic porous medium, which takes into account the log-normal permeability distribution and the spatial correlation of the permeability field. In both experiments and numerical simulations, we observe stationary fronts propagating at a constant velocity with an almost constant front width. Experiments without flow in packed bead porous media with different bead sizes show that the front propagation depends on the tortuous nature of diffusion in the pore space. We observe microscopic effects when the pores are of the size of the chemical front width. We address both supportive co-current and adverse flows with respect to the direction of propagation of the chemical reaction. For supportive flows, experiments and simulations allow observation of two flow regimes. For adverse flow, we observe upstream and downstream front motion as well as static front behaviors over a wide range of flow rates. In order to understand better these observed static state fronts, flow experiments around a single obstacle were used to delineate the range of steady state behavior. A model using the 'eikonal thin front limit' explains the observed steady states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the dynamics of nonwetting liquid blobs during immiscible two-phase flows in stochastically reconstructed porous domains predominantly saturated by a wetting fluid. The flow problem is solved explicitly using a Lattice-Boltzmann model that captures both the bulk phase and interfacial dynamics of the process. We show that the nonwetting blobs undergo a continuous life cycle of dynamic breaking up and coalescence producing two populations of blobs, a mobile and a stranded one, that exchange continuously mass between them. The process reaches a "steady state" when the rates of coalescence and breaking up become equal, and the macroscopic flow variables remain practically constant with time. At steady state, mass partitioning between mobile and immobile populations depends strongly on the applied Bond number Bo and the initial nonwetting phase distributions. Three flow regimes are identified: a single-phase flow Darcy-type regime at low Bo numbers, a non-Darcy two-phase flow regime at intermediate values of Bo, where the capillary number scales as Ca ∝ Bo², and a Darcy-type two-phase flow regime at higher values of Bo. Our numerical results are found to be in good agreement with recent experimental and theoretical works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]