Mineral dissolution and wormholing from a pore-scale perspective

Soulaine, Cyprien; Roman, Sophie; Kovscek, Anthony R.; Tchelepi, Hamdi A.

doi:10.1017/jfm.2017.499

Cited by 186 publications

(232 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Further, simulation results resolve variables that are not easily available from experiments, for example concentration gradients within the pore space. Such data enables additional insights to be drawn, especially when comparison to experimental data is possible [15,66,75,96,97,99].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of mineral dissolution at the pore scale with evolving fluid-solid interfaces: review of approaches and benchmark problem set

et al. 2020

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This manuscript presents a benchmark problem for the simulation of single-phase flow, reactive transport, and solid geometry evolution at the pore scale. The problem is organized in three parts that focus on specific aspects: flow and reactive transport (part I), dissolution-driven geometry evolution in two dimensions (part II), and an experimental validation of threedimensional dissolution-driven geometry evolution (part III). Five codes are used to obtain the solution to this benchmark problem, including Chombo-Crunch, OpenFOAM-DBS, a lattice Boltzman code, Vortex, and dissolFoam. These codes cover a good portion of the wide range of approaches typically employed for solving pore-scale problems in the literature, including discretization methods, characterization of the fluid-solid interfaces, and methods to move these interfaces as a result of fluid-solid reactions. A short review of these approaches is given in relation to selected published studies. Results from the simulations performed by the five codes show remarkable agreement both quantitatively-based on upscaled parameters such as surface area, solid volume, and effective reaction rate-and qualitatively-based on comparisons of shape evolution. This outcome is especially notable given the disparity of approaches used by the codes. Therefore, these results establish a strong benchmark for the validation and testing of pore-scale codes developed for the simulation of flow and reactive transport with evolving geometries. They also underscore the significant advances seen in the last decade in tools and approaches for simulating this type of problem.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of mineral dissolution at the pore scale with evolving fluid-solid interfaces: review of approaches and benchmark problem set

et al. 2020

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“…Although multi-scale models are sensitive to the approach employed to segment the images of reconstructed porous media (Soulaine and Tchelepi 2016), they are especially suited to fractured media due to the large contrast between the fracture and the matrix. An approach for combining pore-and Darcy-scale representations that has quickly gained much traction in the earth sciences is the one conceptualized by the Darcy-Brinkman-Stokes equation (Golfier et al 2002;Popov et al 2009;Gulbransen et al 2010;Yang et al 2014;Soulaine and Tchelepi 2016;Soulaine et al 2017). Darcy-Brinkman-Stokes equation describes flow in open pore space and in a porous continuum with a single equation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the pore space, terms associated with porous-media flow become negligible, and in the porous continuum, the terms associated with pore-scale flow become negligible. Although these models have been extended for reactive transport (Golfier et al 2002;Soulaine et al 2017), they have not been specifically applied to fractured media. Because processes at different scale are solved in a single equation, this approach does not easily allow for different spatial and temporal discretization in the different portions of the domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-scale Model of Reactive Transport in Fractured Media: Diffusion Limitations on Rates

et al. 2019

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Reactive transport in fractured media is conceptualized as a multi-scale problem that couples a pore-scale component, which comprises Navier-Stokes flow, multi-component transport and aqueous equilibrium in the fracture, and a Darcy-scale component, which comprises multicomponent diffusive transport, aqueous equilibrium and mineral reactions in the porous matrix. The model that implements this multi-scale approach builds on an existing porescale model and is able to capture complex fracture geometries with the embedded-boundary method. The embedded boundary acts as the interface between pore-and Darcy-scale domains. Adaptive mesh refinement is used to match resolutions at the interface while using coarser resolution away from the interface when not needed in the Darcy-scale domain. The new model is validated and then compared to results from a pore-scale model. Multi-scale model results are shown to be equivalent to pore-scale results under diffusion-controlled reactions in the pore scale and very fast dissolution in the Darcy scale. The multi-scale model provides a more accurate solution for a given resolution as it effectively sets the equilibrium concentrations as boundary conditions. The multi-scale model is capable to capture flow channelization observed in an experimental fractured core and, at the same time, limitations in the dissolution of calcite by diffusive transport through an altered porous layer. Discrepancies in effluent calcium concentrations between the multi-scale results and results from a reduced-dimension Darcy-scale model for this fractured core experiment are attributed to the solution of the flow field and the gradients that develop inside the fracture. Discrepancies in effluent magnesium concentrations exemplify the limitations of the approach because the multi-scale model requires calibration of reactive surface areas as Darcy-scale continuum models.

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“…Mineral reactions have also been observed to occur uniformly on all grain surfaces, independent of sample characteristics (Crandell et al, 2012). It has been observed that high Damkohler (Da) number scenarios (e.g., high reaction rates relative to fluid transport rates) result in nonuniform alterations including channeling and worm holing (Luquot & Gouze, 2009;Noiriel, 2015;Qi et al, 2018), while low Da numbers (slow reaction kinetics compared to fluid transport) result in unfirm reactions (Golfier et al, 2002;Soulaine et al, 2017;Tartakovsky et al, 2007). Pore network modeling simulations in Beckingham (2017) considered the impact of the spatial distribution of mineral reactions on porosity and permeability and found large variations in the evolution of permeability depending on spatial location of reactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Pore and Pore‐Throat Distributions in Controlling Permeability in Heterogeneous Mineral Dissolution and Precipitation Scenarios

Steinwinder

Beckingham

2019

Water Resources Research

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Mineral dissolution and precipitation reactions can significantly alter the porosity and permeability of porous media. While porosity generally increases with dissolution and decreases with precipitation, permeability is controlled by the spatial locations of reactions in discrete pores and pore throats and in the greater pore network. Geochemical reactions have been observed to occur both uniformly and nonuniformly in porous media, driven by parameters such as mineral distribution, grain size, and Peclet and Damkohler numbers. Pore network modeling can be used to simulate the impact of pore‐scale alterations on permeability, requiring only pore and pore‐throat size distributions and pore connectivity. Here, the impact of variations in pore and pore‐throat size distributions on reactive permeability for uniform and nonuniform spatial distributions of reactions is evaluated. A series of pore network models are created and populated with pore and pore‐throat size distributions of varying types (skewed, normal, and uniform) to represent differences in network topology and characterization methods. The impacts of these distributions on reactive permeability are then simulated for uniform and nonuniform reaction conditions by increasing or decreasing pore and pore‐throat sizes in a prescribed manner to reflect dissolution and precipitation, respectively. Overall, simulations reveal that porosity‐permeability evolution varies with reaction scenario and is qualitatively consistent for the different pore and pore‐throat size distributions. Common macroscopic porosity‐permeability relationships work well for some reaction scenarios but are unable to reflect size‐dependent reactions. A new modified version of the Verma‐Pruess relationship is created and able to successfully reflect the porosity‐permeability evolution for size‐dependent reactions.

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Mineral dissolution and wormholing from a pore-scale perspective

Cited by 186 publications

References 62 publications

Simulation of mineral dissolution at the pore scale with evolving fluid-solid interfaces: review of approaches and benchmark problem set

Simulation of mineral dissolution at the pore scale with evolving fluid-solid interfaces: review of approaches and benchmark problem set

Multi-scale Model of Reactive Transport in Fractured Media: Diffusion Limitations on Rates

Role of Pore and Pore‐Throat Distributions in Controlling Permeability in Heterogeneous Mineral Dissolution and Precipitation Scenarios

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