Bulletin of the American Physical Society
76th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics
Sunday–Tuesday, November 19–21, 2023; Washington, DC
Session X31: Porous Media Flows: General |
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Chair: Junlin Yuan, Michigan State University Room: 156 |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 8:00AM - 8:13AM |
X31.00001: A single mesh approximation for multiphase flow in complex subsurface porous media Jumanah Al Kubaisy, Matthew D Jackson, Pablo Salinas The control volume finite element (CVFE) method is inherently flexible for modelling flow and transport in any geological features often found in the subsurface. The finite element method that captures complex flow characteristics is combined with the control volume approach known for its stability and mass conservative properties. The classical CVFE approach exploits two meshes: the element mesh that represents the material properties element-wise and the control volume mesh, centered on the element vertices, representing the saturation solution in the medium. The discrepancy between those two meshes introduces inconsistency in the transport solution especially along material discontinuities or abrupt material interfaces. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 8:13AM - 8:26AM |
X31.00002: Flow regimes in the rotational motion of an array of rigid hairs Sean Bohling, Emilie Dressaire Aquatic organisms extensively rely on hair-covered surfaces to perform functions ranging from chemical sensing to feeding. The flow over such hair-covered surfaces has traditionally been studied with a macroscopic array of rigid hairs in a long flow channel. The flow through such finite porous medium exhibits three regimes, with increasing fluid transport through the array: rake, deflection, sieve. The regimes depend on the Reynolds number of the flow, porosity and confinement of the array. Here we experimentally introduce a new flow geometry where the array of hairs is swept in a circular path around a cylindrical tank, through stationary fluid. This flow condition has a velocity profile that linearly increases from the inner to outer edge of the array. To study the influence of the flow geometry on the three regimes we vary the rotational velocity and array dimensions. Particle Image Velocimetry with dynamic masking is used to measure the velocity field through the array. The experimental results are compared with 2D numerical simulations conducted with the finite element analysis software Comsol. This experimental approach should provide new insights into the interactions of hairs and fluid. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 8:26AM - 8:39AM |
X31.00003: Penetration of a hydrophilic yield stress fluid in hydrophobic porous media Manon Bourgade, Mathieu Leocmach, Loïc Vanel, Solenn Moro, Catherine Barentin Understanding how fluids interact with various superhydrophobic structures and undergo a wetting transition is necessary to improve water resistance or ensure good penetration. Among these interactions is the penetration of fluids inside porous fibrous hydrophobic structures, which is an ubiquitous phenomenon in cosmetics, building renovations, electronics or textiles. While simple fluids entering these media are the subject of numerous studies, complex fluids are not. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 8:39AM - 8:52AM |
X31.00004: Optimal pore design for pleated filters Pejman Sanaei, Daniel Fong Pleated membrane filters are ubiquitous in many industrial filtration systems, since they offer more surface area to volume ratio. However, it is known that the performance of a pleated membrane filter is usually inferior compared to flat non-pleated membrane filters with the same membrane surface area. Therefore, a question of interest to manufacturers is: What is the optimum initial permeability profile as a function of depth through the membrane in order to achieve the maximum filtered fluid while removing certain amount of contaminants from the solvent? In the first part of this talk, we present a mathematical model to describe the flow and transport in the complex geometry of a pleated filter. In the second part, we use the computationally efficient model to investigate how the filtration performance depend on the initial permeability of the membrane. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 8:52AM - 9:05AM |
X31.00005: A coupled pressure based solver for simulating variable porosity flows on coarse grids Kene Nwegbu, Christopher C Pain, Paul N Smith, Gerard J Gorman In this presentation two new formulations are presented for simulating variable porosity single-phase flows on collocated grids. These have been developed on a coupled pressure-based solver that uses the finite difference discretization method. The proposed formulations use the Rhie-Chow interpolation method for avoiding checkerboarding problems. Additionally, the novelties introduced here are discretization schemes for implicit and explicit source terms. The numerical treatment of high-valued source terms on collocated grids has been researched extensively. However, with large discontinuities in porosity, physical oscillations can appear in the solution. The explicit formulation developed here can simulate large discontinuities in porosity on coarsely collocated grids without unphysical oscillations. This is also the case for the implicit formulation which can simulate a wider range of permeabilities and flow speeds, again, without instabilities in the solution. The results of these methods are comparable to using a staggered grid. To demonstrate this new method, the numerical methods will be explained, and a series of test cases will be shown. These test cases will range from incompressible to high Mach number flows with large discontinuities in the porosity and permeability. While the current work uses a finite difference formulation on structured grids, it is proposed that this could be extended to more general finite volume codes. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 9:05AM - 9:18AM |
X31.00006: Hydration solids and the hygroelastic transition: Unusual fluid dynamics in a porous biological material Ozgur Sahin, Steven G Harrellson, Michael S DeLay, Ahmet-Hamdi Cavusoglu, Xi Chen, Jonathan Dworkin, Howard A Stone A large fraction of biological matter on Earth is hygroscopic and metabolically inert. Wood, bamboo, pollen grains, pinecones, silk, wool, bacterial and fungal spores are among these materials. They have Angstrom-scale pores filled with water. How should we think about these materials? Using experiments on hygroscopic spores, we show that hydration forces govern their equilibrium, nonequilibrium, and water-responsive characteristics. A simple microscopic theory quantitatively predicts how the material changes size with changing relative humidity, how it deforms under external forces, and how the kinetics of hydration and dehydration are related to short timescale nonequilibrium mechanical properties. Importantly, the new theory led to the discovery of strong nonlinear elastic behavior and a marked transition in mechanical properties that we named the hygroelastic transition. The hygroelastic transition is an unusual transition in porous media originating from jamming of water molecules in Angstrom-scale pores. It offers the possibility to create materials with tailored frequency responses, materials that simultaneously exhibit high rigidity and damping, materials that convert energy with high power densities. Our findings point to a class of solid matter, called the hydration solids, with highly unusual nanoscale fluid dynamics. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 9:18AM - 9:31AM |
X31.00007: How multilayered rocks seal the fate of fluid-filled fractures Sri Savya Tanikella, Emilie Dressaire, Marie C Sigallon Understanding fluid transport and storage in low permeability rocks is essential to the safe long-term carbon dioxide sequestration in geological formations. In this study, we investigate the behavior of liquid-filled fractures within stratified media, employing laboratory-scale experiments. Our focus lies on analyzing the fracture geometry resulting from the injection of a low-viscosity fluid into a hydrogel block composed of two layers exhibiting different levels of stiffness, characterized by different Young's moduli. The experimental results reveal that the fracture geometry depends on the initiation layer. Fractures formed within a soft layer exhibit restricted propagation, failing to penetrate the neighboring stiff layer. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 9:31AM - 9:44AM |
X31.00008: Wrinkling instabilities of swelling hydrogels Joseph Webber, Grae Worster It has long been known that gels attached to a solid surface and brought into contact with water can form wrinkles, and this has often been explained as resulting from an elastic instability akin to Euler’s analysis of buckling beams. However, experiments also show that the characteristic wavelength of wrinkles increases in time and, in some cases, they are seen to smooth out entirely as the hydrogel approaches its steady state. We use our linear-elastic-nonlinear-swelling model to conduct a linear stability analysis of the interface and calculate growth rates of normal modes. We find that, unlike the Euler beam, there are no incompressible instabilities when the gel is tethered to a rigid base and that elastically-driven instabilities are limited by water transport through the gel. If the base state itself is differentially swollen, such as when a gel is first exposed to water, we find a different, osmotically-driven, instability, and the interplay between osmotically-driven flow and elasticity selects a wavelength that scales with the thickness of the swollen region. As the base state approaches its uniform steady state, the characteristic wavelength increases and the effect of this latter mechanism becomes less important, reducing the growth rate and smoothing the wrinkles. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 9:44AM - 9:57AM |
X31.00009: A level-set immersed boundary method (LS-IBM) to study reactive transport in complex topologies with moving interfaces Yinuo (Noah) Yao, Mehrdad Yousefzadeh, Ilenia Battiato We have developed a simulation framework, LS-IBM, for simulating reactive transport in porous media where a solid-fluid interface is in motion. We employ the level-set method to track the interface movement due to surface reactions while the immersed boundary method captures momentum and mass transport at the interface. This approach allows for highly accurate modeling of transport near evolving boundaries on Cartesian grids, ensuring second-order spatial accuracy. Since the interface velocity is only defined at the moving boundary, an interface velocity propagation method is employed. We conduct validation tests of the LS-IBM framework for both flow and transport scenarios near an immersed object with reactive boundaries, as well as for crystal growth. Overall, the LS-IBM approach presents a robust and powerful solution for modeling complex problems that involve moving reactive interfaces within complicated domains. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 9:57AM - 10:10AM |
X31.00010: A unified theory for gravity current, interfacial and unsaturated flows in porous layers Zhong Zheng, Jerome A Neufeld We study the dynamics of two-phase flows injected into a confined porous layer. A model is derived to describe the evolution of the fluid–fluid interface, where the effective saturation of the injected fluid is zero. The flow is driven by pressure gradients due to injection, the buoyancy due to density contrasts and the interfacial tension between the injected and ambient fluids. The saturation field is then computed after the interface evolution is obtained. The results demonstrate that the flow behaviour evolves from early-time unconfined to late-time confined behaviours. In particular, at early times, the influence of capillary forces drives fluid flow and produces a new self-similar spreading behaviour in the unconfined limit that is distinct from the gravity current solution. At late times, we obtain two new similarity solutions, a modified shock solution and a compound wave solution, in addition to the rarefaction and shock solutions in the sharp-interface limit. A schematic regime diagram is also provided, which summarises all possible similarity solutions and the time transitions between them for the partially saturating flows resulting from fluid injection into a confined porous layer. Three dimensionless control parameters are identified and their influence on the fluid flow is also discussed, including the viscosity ratio, the pore-size distribution and the relative contributions of capillary and buoyancy forces. To underline the relevance of our results, we also briefly describe the implications of the two-phase flow model to the geological storage of CO2, using representative geological parameters from the Sleipner and In Salah sites. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 10:10AM - 10:23AM |
X31.00011: Simulating porous electrodes in flow batteries Michael S Emanuel, Christopher H Rycroft Redox flow batteries are a type of electrochemical cell that can be used to store energy and convert between electrical and chemical energy. Flow batteries are a promising technology for grid scale energy storage and the ongoing clean energy transition. A critical component of flow batteries is a porous electrode, which is the site of electrochemical reactions and is often composed of carbon cloth in practice. In this talk, I will introduce a numerical simulation of porous electrodes. We model the system as a pair of loosely coupled phenomena. First, we simulate an incompressible fluid flow of the pumped electrolyte around solid fibers in the electrode. Then, we simulate advection, diffusion and the chemical source term using the Butler-Volmer equation. Our modeling approach uses embedded boundaries and cut cells and is based on the AmReX library. We have an MPI code that can run in parallel on multiple servers to simulate larger systems. The special case of greatest interest is steady state. I will demonstrate some novel techniques to accelerate solving steady state in a millimeter scale 2D system to a sub-micron resolution. With iterative upsampling, we solve the system at a coarse resolution and then interpolate the results as the initial guess for a simulation at a finer resolution. In the Nernst model, we take the limiting case of infinitely fast reaction kinetics. This allows us to treat the concentration of each species on the reactive surface as a boundary condition, obtained by solving the Nernst equation; we then simulate only advection and diffusion to find the steady state concentration field. |
Tuesday, November 21, 2023 10:23AM - 10:36AM |
X31.00012: Capillarity and Partially Saturated Porous Material Dynamics Javed I SIDDIQUE, Daniel M Anderson We explore the role of partial saturation and accompanying variations in permeability and capillary pressure in capillary rise dynamics into a rigid porous material. Experiments show a deviation from the classical Washburn model dynamics after early times and our aim in this work is to investigate this deviation. We use multiphase mixture theory for modeling to capture a single framework to understand the complex dynamics. We will compare the numerically computed results of our model to experimental data and other related literature. |
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