TOUGHREACT User's Guide: A Simulation Program for Non-isothermal Multiphase Reactive Geochemical Transport in Variably Saturated Geologic Media, V1.2.1
Coupled modeling of subsurface multiphase fluid and heat flow, solute transport, and chemical reactions can be applied to many geologic systems and environmental problems, including geothermal systems, diagenetic and weathering processes, subsurface waste disposal, acid mine drainage remediation, contaminant transport, and groundwater quality. TOUGHREACT has been developed as a comprehensive non-isothermal multi-component reactive fluid flow and geochemical transport simulator to investigate these and other problems. A number of subsurface thermo-physical-chemical processes are considered under various thermohydrological and geochemical conditions of pressure, temperature, water saturation, and ionic strength. TOUGHREACT can be applied to one-, two- or three-dimensional porous and fractured media with physical and chemical heterogeneity. The code can accommodate any number of chemical species present in liquid, gas and solid phases. A variety of equilibrium chemical reactions are considered, such as aqueous complexation, gas dissolution/exsolution, and cation exchange. Mineral dissolution/precipitation can take place subject to either local equilibrium or kinetic controls, with coupling to changes in porosity and permeability and capillary pressure in unsaturated systems. Chemical components can also be treated by linear adsorption and radioactive decay. The first version of the non-isothermal reactive geochemical transport code TOUGHREACT was developed (Xu and Pruess, 1998) by introducing reactive geochemistry into the framework of the existing multi-phase fluid and heat flow code TOUGH2 (Pruess, 1991). TOUGHREACT was further enhanced with the addition of (1) treatment of mineral-water-gas reactive-transport under boiling conditions, (2) an improved HKF activity model for aqueous species, (3) gas species diffusion coefficients calculated as a function of pressure, temperature, and molecular properties, (4) mineral reactive surface area formulations for fractured and porous media, and (5) porosity, permeability, and capillary pressure changes owing to mineral precipitation/dissolution (Sonnenthal et al., 1998, 2000, 2001; Spycher et al., 2003a). Subsequently, TOUGH2 V2 was released with additional EOS modules and features (Pruess et al., 1999). The present version of TOUGHREACT includes all of the previous extensions to the original version, along with the replacement of the original TOUGH2 (Pruess, 1991) by TOUGH2 V2 (Pruess et al., 1999). TOUGHREACT has been applied to a wide variety of problems, some of which are included as examples, such as: (1) Supergene copper enrichment (Xu et al., 2001); (2) Mineral alteration in hydrothermal systems (Xu and Pruess, 2001a; Xu et al., 2004b; Dobson et al., 2004); (3) Mineral trapping for CO{sub 2} disposal in deep saline aquifers (Xu et al., 2003b and 2004a); (4) Coupled thermal, hydrological, and chemical processes in boiling unsaturated tuff for the proposed nuclear waste emplacement site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (Sonnenthal et al., 1998, 2001; Sonnenthal and Spycher, 2000; Spycher et al., 2003a, b; Xu et al., 2001); (5) Modeling of mineral precipitation/dissolution in plug-flow and fracture-flow experiments under boiling conditions (Dobson et al., 2003); (6) Calcite precipitation in the vadose zone as a function of net infiltration (Xu et al., 2003); and (7) Stable isotope fractionation in unsaturated zone pore water and vapor (Singleton et al., 2004). The TOUGHREACT program makes use of 'self-documenting' features. It is distributed with a number of input data files for sample problems. Besides providing benchmarks for proper code installation, these can serve as a self-teaching tutorial in the use of TOUGHREACT, and they provide templates to help jump-start new applications. The fluid and heat flow part of TOUGHREACT is derived from TOUGH2 V2, so in addition to the current manual, users must have the manual of the TOUGH2 V2 (Pruess et al., 1999). The present version of TOUGHREACT provides the following TOUGH2 fluid property or 'EOS' (equation-of-state) modules: (1) EOS1 for water, or two waters with typical applications to hydrothermal problems, (2) EOS2 for multiphase mixtures of water and CO{sub 2} also with typical applications to hydrothermal problems, (3) EOS3 for multiphase mixtures of water and air with typical applications to vadose zone and nuclear waste disposal problems, (4) EOS4 that has the same capabilities as EOS3 but with vapor pressure lowering effects due to capillary pressure, (5) EOS9 for single phase water (Richards equation) with typical applications to ambient temperature and pressure reactive geochemical transport problems, and (6) ECO2N for multiphase mixtures of water, CO{sub 2} and NaCl with typical applications to CO{sub 2} disposal in deep brine aquifers.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Earth Sciences Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 943451
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-55460-2008; TRN: US0900424
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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