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Non-monotonic impact of erosion on solute dispersion in porous media
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  • Ali Saeibehrouzi,
  • Soroush Abolfathi,
  • Petr Denissenko,
  • Ran Holtzman
Ali Saeibehrouzi
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University
Soroush Abolfathi
School of Engineering, University of Warwick
Petr Denissenko
School of Engineering, University of Warwick
Ran Holtzman
Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Flow through a granular, natural porous media can erode it chemically by dissolving and thus shrinking the solid particles, or mechanically, by removing them. The two-way interplay between the transport of fluids and dissolved solutes and alteration of the porous structure and hence the medium's transport properties is of interest to processes ranging from subsurface energy storage to contamination in groundwater. Here, we conduct a quantitative pore-scale analysis through a combination of numerical simulations and microfluidic experiments. We find that erosion enhances solute dispersion at low Pe (diffusion-dominated) and diminishes it at high Pe. Residence time distribution reveals that mechanical erosion tends to induce non-Fickian transport more than chemical erosion, which we attribute to the differences in their effects on pore size distribution.
14 Sep 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
15 Sep 2024Published in ESS Open Archive