On breakdown of macroscopic models of mixing-controlled heterogeneous reactions in porous media

Journal Article · Sun Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Advances in Water Resources, 32(11):1664-1673

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2009.08.008· OSTI ID:967196

Battiato, Ilenia; Tartakovsky, Daniel M; Tartakovsky, Alexandre M; Scheibe, Timothy D

Reactive transport in porous media is a complex nonlinear phenomenon that involves both homogeneous (bio-)chemical reactions between species dissolved in a fluid and heterogeneous reactions that occur on liquid-solid interfaces. We establish conditions under which macroscopic reaction-diffusion equations (RDEs) provide an adequate averaged description of pore-scale processes. These conditions are represented by a phase diagram in a two-dimensional space, which is spanned by Damkohler number and a scale-separation parameter. This phase diagram shows that highly localized phenomena in porous media, including precipitation on (and/or dissolution of) a porous matrix, do not lend themselves to macroscopic (upscaled) descriptions. To compute the predictive errors resulting from the use of macroscopic RDEs to describe such phenomena, we upscaled the pore-scale RDEs to the continuum (macroscopic) scale and used pore-scale numerical simulations to verify various upscaling assumptions.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 967196
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-64544; KP1702030
• Journal Information: Advances in Water Resources, 32(11):1664-1673, Journal Name: Advances in Water Resources, 32(11):1664-1673 Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 32
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DISSOLUTION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
GEOCHEMISTRY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PHASE DIAGRAMS
POROUS MATERIALS
Upscaling
heterogeneous reaction
homogeneous reaction
porous media
reactive transport