Flow and transport modelling in highly heterogeneous geological porous media
Publication Date
July 26, 2023
Creator
Abstract
Flow and transport processes through porous media are ubiquitous both in natural and industrial environments. Ranging from diffusion in human tissue to oil recovery and CO2 storage, including the design of porous reactors, geothermal energy production, groundwater remediation, oil recovery and CO2 storage, the characterisation of fluid flow and solute transport at different scales represents the paradigm to better understand the mechanisms at the base of several processes. Due to the broad spectrum of applications, a vast empirical and numerical research field developed around transport in heterogeneous porous media. While on the numerical side, the mathematical models available for simulating transport at the micro and meso scales have shown good agreement with the empirical tests, the debate around modelling transport at the macro-scale is still open. One example is the unknown relation between system parameters and their values measured at different scales which is usually addressed as scale effect. Other examples are anomalous or non-Fickian transport phenomena and the validity range of macro-scale transport models. Our study focuses on the impact of the heterogeneous distribution of the subsurface properties on the transport of solute at the macro-scale. Initially we propose an analysis of transport in heterogeneous porous media generated with a random geostatistical algorithm. Subsequently this subject is expanded and applied to a real domain which was surveyed and reconstructed with a high level of resolution. Three-dimensional meso-scale numerical simulations performed with our open-source C++ library, built on top of the finite-volume library OpenFOAM, represent the main source of data to test macro-scale mathematical models.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Mathematical Sciences (UK)
Other Related URL(s)
eprints ID
74088
UoN Repository URI
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Thesis_final.pdf
Type
Full-text
Description
Examined. Submission after VIVA
Size
32.12 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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