Transport Phenomena in Porous Media

Transport Phenomena in Porous Media
* Importance of the research topic -- locally and globally

The science of porous media is covered many areas of applied science and engineering such
as transport phenomenon, single phase and multiphase fluid flow, heat transfer, and electrical
and acoustical transport .Therefore in the past decades , the flow and transport properties such
as flow resistance and permeability for fractal porous media have emerged as a separate field
of study . Transport phenomena in porous media, from microscopic to upward scales, cover
general theories behind flow and transport in porous media and form the basis for deterministic
and stochastic models that describe them. It is seen that natural and some synthetic porous
media are fractals, and these media may be called fractal porous media.
However, the microstructures and transport mechanisms in porous media are very complex in
nature. Fractal geometry is also shown the potential in the analysis of flow and transport
properties of porous media. Several practical problems are focused on the radially outward
flow of fluid into a porous medium for example geomechanics, biophysics and filtration. In
geomechanics, pile driving involves the mechanical expansion of a cylindrical cavity in a fluid-
saturated soil, generating large pore pressures in the surrounding medium that gradually relax
through consolidation.
Biophysical application is included the injection into subcutaneous tissue and blood flow
through arteries and vascular networks, which have permeable walls.
Poroelasticity play an important role in understanding the transport through a wide range of
materials ranging from individual cells to biological tissues e.g., soft-tissues bones even to
hydraulic fracture.
In many of above mentioned cases, the driving pressure is significantly large as compare to the
stiffness of the solid structure that the poromechanical coupling between the fluid and the solid
has an important impact on the flow.
And, this coupling is described by the iconic theory of linear poroelasticity, which combines
Darcy’s Law with linear elasticity in a linearized kinematic framework and is valid for
infinitesimal deformations of the solid.
In the recent year huge interest is growing on the gas production from unconventional gas
reservoirs, such as tight gas/shale gas reservoir. Because of ultra-low permeability and small
pore diameter. Gas flow is slightly complicated due to generation of multi flow mechanism.
Flow through pipe is associated with the hydraulic head and insignificant kinetic head that
way its behaviour is fundamentally different from the concept of fluid flow through pipes. Due
to all these complication in flow mechanism, the traditional Darcy’s law, such as slip flow and
Knudsen diffusion are not able to describe efficiently. Therefore, a rigours study in modelling
is required for improvement.
Methods: mathematical model and solution technique
The conventional fluid flow equation based on mass, momentum, and energy conservation
equations. By assuming isothermal condition, we can ignore the energy conservation equations.
And mass conservation equation indicate the difference between the fluid mass fluxes that enter
and leave a particular element. Due to porous medium system, the volume of mass applicable
only to the pore-volume and bulk volume is not appropriate, therefore, the parameter porosity
plays a key role. In the macroscopic-scale, a simple linear Darcy’s law is used by avoiding the
non-linear NSE to describe the fluid flow through a porous medium.
The flow and macroscopic transport properties of porous media such as flow resistance,
permeabilies and dispersion conductivity is closely related to the microstructures of the media.
Over the past decade, several numerical simulation such as lattice gas LG, lattice Boltzmann
method LBM, effective medium approximation, finite element method, reconstruction of real
porous media, Monte Carlo simulation are developed for simulating fluid flows and heat
transfer phenomena in porous media. Some people also performed direct numerical simulation
of the flow through a model of deformable porous medium. The tortuosity for flow paths in
porous media is conventionally determined by experiments and by using experimental data
empirical correlation is derived. Moreover, few analytical solution is also available to explain
the transport mechanism.
* Objectives
Diffusion part in modelling required correction due to presence of complex flux.
The existing model and solution technique need improvement to efficiently explain the
transport phenomenon mechanism. We need to develop a simple model to describe tortuosity
of flow paths in porous media. In the exiting model, incorporation of multiflow mechanism,
such as slip flow and transition flow can improve the transport mechanism.
Short methodology
The steady-state local or microscopic instantaneous transport equation for an incompressible
fluid with constant properties have been given by
.u  0
.(uu)  p   2 u  g
( c p ).(uT )  .(T )
Where u is the velocity vector, ρ is the density, p is the pressure, μ is the fluid viscosity, g
is the gravity acceleration vector, cp is the specific heat, T is the temperature,

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Transport Phenomena in Porous Media

* Importance of the research topic -- locally and globally

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