Two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media. 1. Model development

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · Water Resources Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91WR00266· OSTI ID:6003429

Kueper, B H; Frind, E O ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada)

A two-dimensional finite difference model to study the simultaneous movement of a dense, nonaqueous phase liquid and water in heterogeneous porous media is developed. A distinctive feature of the solution is that the primary variables solved for, wetting phase pressure and wetting phase saturation, are both existent throughout the solution domain regardless of whether the nonwetting phase is present. This eliminates the need to specify small, fictitious saturations of nonwetting fluid ahead of the advancing front where only wetting fluid is present, as is often required in conventional simulators. The model is therefore well suited for the simulation of groundwater contamination problems involving the advance of immiscible liquids into previously uncontaminated groundwater systems. The finite difference equations are solved fully implicitly using Newton-Raphson iteration. In order to minimize computer storage and execution time a Dupont-Kendall-Rachford iterative solver utilizing Orthomin acceleration had been incorporated. The numerical model is verified against an exact analytical solution which incorporates fully the effects of both relative permeability and capillary pressure. The model is validated through comparison to a parallel-plate laboratory experiment involving the infiltration of tetrachloroethylene into a heterogeneous sand pack.

• OSTI ID: 6003429
• Journal Information: Water Resources Research; (United States), Journal Name: Water Resources Research; (United States) Vol. 27:6; ISSN 0043-1397; ISSN WRERA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
AQUIFERS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FLOW MODELS
FLUID FLOW
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROLOGY
ITERATIVE METHODS
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTANTS
POLLUTION
POROUS MATERIALS
SIMULATION
TWO-PHASE FLOW
WATER
WATER POLLUTION