skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Pore-network model of evaporation-induced salt precipitation in porous media: The effect of correlations and heterogeneity

Journal Article · · Advances in Water Resources
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)

Salt transport and precipitation in porous media constitute a set of complex and fascinating phenomena that are of considerable interest to several important problems, ranging from storage of CO2 in geological formations, to soil fertility, and protection of pavements and roads, as well as historical monuments. The phenomena occur at the pore scale and are greatly influenced by the heterogeneity of the pore space morphology. In this paper, we present a pore-network (PN) model to study the phenomena. Vapor diffusion, capillary effect at the brine-vapor interface, flow of brine, and transport of salt and its precipitation in the pores that plug the pores partially or completely are all accounted for. The drying process is modeled by the invasion percolation, while transport of salt in brine is accounted for by the convective-diffusion equation. We demonstrate that the drying patterns, the clustering and connectivity of the pore throats in which salt precipitation occurs, the saturation distribution, and the drying rate are all strongly dependent upon the pore-size distribution, the correlations among the pore sizes, and the anisotropy of the pore space caused by stratification that most natural porous media contain. In particular, if the strata are more or less parallel to the direction of injection of the gas that dries out the pore space (air, for example) and/or causes salt precipitation (CO2, for example), the drying rate increases significantly. Moreover, salt tends to precipitate in clusters of neighboring pores that are parallel to the open surface of the porous medium.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Geologic Storage of CO2 (GSCO2)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012504; SC0C12504
OSTI ID:
1470206
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1548912
Journal Information:
Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 112, Issue C; Related Information: GSCO2 partners with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (lead); National Energy Technology Laboratory; Schlumberger; SINTEF; Stiftelsen Norsar; Texas Tech University; University of Notre Dame; University of Southern California; University of Texas at Austin; Wright State University; ISSN 0309-1708
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (81)

Nonuniversality of roughness exponent of quasistatic fracture surfaces journal February 2012
Experimental investigation into salt precipitation during CO2 injection in saline aquifers journal January 2011
Adsorption-induced swelling of porous media journal February 2017
The simulator TOUGH2/EWASG for modelling geothermal reservoirs with brines and non-condensible gas journal August 1997
Monitoring of saturation changes and salt precipitation during CO 2 injection using pulsed neutron-gamma logging at the Ketzin pilot site journal September 2014
Evaporation of NaCl solution from porous media with mixed wettability: Saline Water Evaporation From Sand journal May 2016
Pore-scale imaging and modelling journal January 2013
Detailed physics, predictive capabilities and macroscopic consequences for pore-network models of multiphase flow journal August 2002
Influence of pore structure and impregnation–drying conditions on the solid distribution in porous support materials journal March 2016
Field-scale application of a semi-analytical model for estimation of CO2 and brine leakage along old wells journal March 2011
Pore network model of transport and separation of binary gas mixtures in nanoporous membranes journal May 2008
Determination d'un réseau aleatoire de pores pour modéliser la sorption et la migration d'humidité dans un mortier de ciment journal August 1991
Scaling, multifractality, and long-range correlations in well log data of large-scale porous media journal June 2011
Nucleation of Salt Crystals in Clay Minerals: Molecular Dynamics Simulation journal June 2017
Nonuniversality of the Archie exponent due to multifractality of resistivity well logs: NONUNIVERSALITY OF THE ARCHIE EXPONENT journal December 2015
Metastability Limit for the Nucleation of NaCl Crystals in Confinement journal February 2014
Invasion Percolation: A Computational Algorithm for Complex Phenomena journal March 2010
Pore network simulation of imbibition into paper during coating: I. Model development journal March 2001
Pore network simulation of fluid imbibition into paper during coating: II. Characterization of paper's morphology and computation of its effective permeability tensor journal June 2004
Drying of salt solutions in porous materials: Intermediate-time dynamics and efflorescence journal July 2008
Pore-Network Simulation of Unstable Miscible Displacements in Porous Media journal May 2016
How ions distribute in a drying porous medium: A simple model journal April 2002
Transport of large particles in flow through porous media journal December 1987
Computer simulation of particle transport processes in flow through porous media journal January 1991
Free-Flow–Porous-Media Coupling for Evaporation-Driven Transport and Precipitation of Salt in Soil journal June 2015
Aquifer-on-a-Chip: understanding pore-scale salt precipitation dynamics during CO2 sequestration journal January 2013
Invasion percolation with long-range correlations: First-order phase transition and nonuniversal scaling properties journal May 2000
Simulation of mercury porosimetry on correlated grids: Evidence for extended correlated heterogeneity at the pore scale in rocks journal December 1998
Pore network modelling of two-phase flow in porous rock: the effect of correlated heterogeneity journal February 2001
Transport and dispersion in random networks with percolation disorder journal April 1988
Modeling of Drying in Capillary-Porous Media: a Discrete Approach journal January 1998
Impact of Capillary-Driven Liquid Films on Salt Crystallization journal May 2009
Characteristic lengths affecting evaporative drying of porous media journal May 2008
Flow-through drying of porous media journal January 2006
Microstructural characterization of random packings of cubic particles journal October 2016
Packing of nonoverlapping cubic particles: Computational algorithms and microstructural characteristics journal December 2016
Statistical characterization of microstructure of packings of polydisperse hard cubes journal May 2017
Eulerian network modeling of longitudinal dispersion journal October 2015
Salt precipitation during CO 2 storage—A review journal August 2016
New insights on the physics of salt precipitation during injection of CO 2 into saline aquifers journal December 2015
Network model for the evolution of the pore structure of silicon-carbide membranes during their fabrication journal July 2010
Calculation of the effective permeabilities of field-scale porous media journal October 2000
CO2 injection impairment due to halite precipitation journal February 2009
Infrared thermography of evaporative fluxes and dynamics of salt deposition on heterogeneous porous surfaces: IRT OF EVAPORATION AND SALT PRECIPITATION journal December 2011
Generalized scaling of permeabilities: Validation and effect of support scale journal March 1994
Intense fracturing and fracture sealing induced by mineral growth in porous rocks journal January 2010
Nonlinear effects of salt concentrations on evaporation from porous media: EVAPORATION FROM SALINE POROUS MEDIA journal February 2012
Effects of grain angularity on NaCl precipitation in porous media during evaporation journal November 2014
Pore-scale dynamics of salt precipitation in drying porous media journal September 2013
Advances in Soil Evaporation Physics—A Review journal January 2013
Injection of supercritical CO2 in brine saturated sandstone: Pattern formation during salt precipitation journal January 2011
Well injectivity during CO2 storage operations in deep saline aquifers—Part 1: Experimental investigation of drying effects, salt precipitation and capillary forces journal March 2014
Three-dimensional mixed-wet random pore-scale network modeling of two- and three-phase flow in porous media. I. Model description journal February 2005
Three-dimensional mixed-wet random pore-scale network modeling of two- and three-phase flow in porous media. II. Results journal February 2005
Isothermal drying on non-hygroscopic capillary-porous materials as an invasion percolation process journal September 1995
Molecular pore-network model for nanoporous materials. II: Application to transport and separation of gaseous mixtures in silicon-carbide membranes journal December 2009
μ-CT analysis and numerical simulation of drying effects of CO2 injection into brine-saturated porous media journal August 2014
Hydrodynamics of particulate motion in porous media journal March 1991
Scaling properties of a percolation model with long-range correlations journal October 1996
Theory of Drying journal January 1990
Damage Mechanisms of Porous Materials due to In-Pore Salt Crystallization journal December 2012
Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, California journal October 2005
Evaporation-driven growth of large crystallized salt structures in a porous medium journal October 2014
Damage in porous media due to salt crystallization journal June 2010
Coupling of evaporative fluxes from drying porous surfaces with air boundary layer: Characteristics of evaporation from discrete pores: COUPLING EVAP. FROM DISCRETE PORES WITH BL journal September 2012
Thermo-evaporative fluxes from heterogeneous porous surfaces resolved by infrared thermography: EVAP. FLUXES FROM POROUS SURFACES journal September 2010
Drying as an immiscible displacement process with fluid counterflow journal October 1987
Pore-scale dynamics of salt transport and distribution in drying porous media journal January 2014
Liquid-phase continuity and solute concentration dynamics during evaporation from porous media: Pore-scale processes near vaporization surface journal April 2010
Drying front and water content dynamics during evaporation from sand delineated by neutron radiography: DRYING FRONT AND WATER CONTENT DYNAMICS journal June 2008
What determines drying rates at the onset of diffusion controlled stage-2 evaporation from porous media?: DRYING RATE AT THE ONSET OF STAGE-2 EVAPORATION journal September 2011
Morphology, propagation dynamics and scaling characteristics of drying fronts in porous media: PROPAGATION DYNAMICS OF DRYING FRONTS journal May 2012
New insights into saline water evaporation from porous media: Complex interaction between evaporation rates, precipitation, and surface temperature: Saline Water Evaporation From Sand journal June 2017
The inclusion of molecular diffusion effects in the network modelling of hydrodynamic dispersion in porous media journal January 1991
Consideration of heat transfer in pore network modelling of convective drying journal May 2008
Modeling salt precipitation from brines on Mars: Evaporation versus freezing origin for soil salts journal April 2015
Discrete Salt Crystallization at the Surface of a Porous Medium journal February 2012
Evaporation of a sodium chloride solution from a saturated porous medium with efflorescence formation journal May 2014
A 2-D pore-network model of the drying of single-component liquids in porous media journal February 2001
Pore-network study of the characteristic periods in the drying of porous materials journal May 2006
Analytical Solution to Evaluate Salt Precipitation during CO2 Injection in Saline Aquifers journal February 2009

Cited By (4)

Water Table Depth and Soil Salinization: From Pore‐Scale Processes to Field‐Scale Responses journal February 2020
Evaporation From Confined Porous Media Due to Controlled IR Heating From Above journal July 2018
The coupled effect of salt precipitation and fines mobilization on CO 2 injectivity in sandstone: Original Research Article: The coupled effect of salt precipitation and mobilization of fines journal September 2018
Malt Barley (Hordeum Vulgare l.) Water use and Grain Yield Response to Saline Irrigation Under Shallow Groundwater Table Conditions journal November 2019