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Deena Hannoun
Simulating Non-Dilute Transport in Porous Media Using a TCAT-Based Model

3212 Enchanting Way
Raleigh
NC 27616
dhannou@ncsu.edu
Pamela Birak
William Gray
Tim Kelley
Casey Miller

Predicting the transport of non-dilute species in fluids of variable density in porous media is a challenging problem for which existing mathematical models are unable to represent accurately the experimental data collected to date. In this work, we consider the displacement of an aqueous phase with dense brine solutions containing a concentrated CaBr2 species, which in the most concentrated case had a density of 1.71 g/cm$ ^3$ and a dynamic viscosity of 0.058 cp. Displacement experiments were conducted in vertically oriented one-dimensional columns for stable displacements of one fluid by a more dense fluid. Simulation of a non-dilute system based upon the thermodynamically constrained averaging theory (TCAT) using an entity-based momentum equation was compared to the data collected. The model accounts for the effects of non-dilute, non-ideal systems and consists of a nonlinear set of equations including a flow equation, a species transport equation, and closure relations. We rewrite the TCAT entity-based model as a system of two coupled partial differential-algebraic equations with the relevant closure relations. We then use a stiff temporal integrator to create 1D simulations of the model. The model is nonlinear and nonsmooth. We will discuss both results and numerical difficulties.




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root 2012-02-20