A mineral precipitation model based on the volume of fluid method

Journal Article · 01 April 2024 · Computational Geosciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-024-10280-3 · OSTI ID:2403084

Wang, Ziyan ^[1]; Battiato, Ilenia ^[2]

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1. Stanford University, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Stanford University
2. Stanford University, CA (United States)

A novel volume of fluid method is presented for mineral precipitation coupled with fluid flow and reactive transport. The approach describes the fluid-solid interface as a smooth transitional region, which is designed to provide the same precipitation rate and viscous drag force as a sharp interface. Specifically, the governing equation of mineral precipitation is discretized by an upwind scheme, and a rigorous effective viscosity model is derived around the interface. The model is validated against analytical solutions for mineral precipitation in channel and ring-shaped structures. It also compares well with interface tracking simulations of advection-diffusion-reaction problems. Here, the methodology is finally employed to model mineral precipitation in fracture networks, which is challenging due to the low porosity and complex geometry. Compared to other approaches, the proposed model has a concise algorithm and contains no free parameters. In the modeling, only the pore space requires meshing, which improves the computational effciency especially for low-porosity media.

• Research Organization: Stanford University, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0019165
• OSTI ID: 2403084
• Journal Information: Computational Geosciences, Journal Name: Computational Geosciences Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 28; ISSN 1420-0597
• Publisher: SpringerCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English