Modeling and analysis of wormhole formation in reactive dissolution of carbonate rocks

CO2-induced dissolution of low permeability carbonates. Part II: Numerical modeling of experiments

“…Porosity, and calcite and dolomite volume fractions for each continuum were averaged in a similar way as expressed by Eqs. (13) and (14).…”

“…Many research efforts (e.g., [7][8][9][10][11]13]) have employed the continuum modeling approach to explore key factors that affect mineral dissolution and related reactive transport processes, particularly focusing on investigation of the formation and development of unstable dissolution fronts or wormholes. Golfier et al [7][8][9] presented a detailed study of dissolution channel development during acid dissolution of a porous medium.…”

Anti-correlated Porosity–Permeability Changes During the Dissolution of Carbonate Rocks: Experimental Evidences and Modeling

“…A fraction of these particles may migrate in the system, being relocated until they eventually accumulate in other throats along their path downstream. The large rate of increase of permeability observed at the end of the experiment (i.e., during the last 10 h) denotes the breakthrough of the preferential flow paths that are known to form in highly reactive systems (e.g., Kalia and Balakotaiah 2007;Luquot and Gouze 2009). …”

Effect of medium heterogeneities on reactive dissolution of carbonates

“…This phenomenon of pattern formation is a complex process and is governed by competition between axial convection, transverse dispersion and reaction mechanisms as well as heterogeneities in the rock. Previous works (Wang et al, 1993;Golfier et al, 2002;Panga et al, 2005;Kalia and Balakotaiah, 2007) used Darcy and pore-scale models to establish the existence of patterns when one of the transport/reaction mechanisms dominates over the others. For example, dispersion and reaction are the major mechanisms in face dissolution, and convection and reaction are the governing mechanisms in uniform dissolution.…”