Finite-element analysis of multiphase immiscible flow through soils

Technical Report · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5322844

Kuppusamy, T; Sheng, J; Parker, J C; Lenhard, R J

A finite-element model is developed for multiphase flow through soil involving three immiscible fluids: namely, air, water, and a nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL). A variational method is employed for the finite-element formulation corresponding to the coupled differential equations governing flow in a three-fluid phase porous-medium system with constant air phase pressure. Constitutive relationships for fluid conductivities and saturations as functions of fluid pressures, which are derived in a companion paper by J. C. Parker et al. (this issue) and which may be calibrated from two-phase laboratory measurements, are employed in the finite-element program. The solution procedure uses backward time integration with iteration by a modified Picard method to handle the nonlinear properties. Laboratory experiments involving water displacement from soil columns by p cymene (a benzene-derivative hydrocarbon) under constant pressure were simulated by the finite-element program to validate the numerical model and formulation for constitutive properties.

• Research Organization: Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5322844
• Report Number(s): PB-88-148176/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
510200 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AROMATICS
CONVECTION
CYMENE
ENERGY TRANSFER
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FLUID FLOW
FLUID MECHANICS
GROUND WATER
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LAND POLLUTION
LIQUID FLOW
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MECHANICS
MULTIPHASE FLOW
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERMEABILITY
POLLUTANTS
POLLUTION
POROUS MATERIALS
SATURATION
SOILS
SOLUBILITY
WATER