InterPore2022

Estimating the structure of a spatially layered media from the radial flow experiments with shear-thinning fluids

2 Jun 2022, 15:15

1h 10m

Poster Presentation (MS21) Non-linear effects in flow and transport through porous media Poster

Speaker

Martin Lanzendörfer (Charles University, Prague)

Description

We address the possible generalization of the methods for the estimation of effective pore size distributions from the saturated permeability experiments with non-Newtonian fluids. In the standard procedure of the yield-stress fluid method (YSM, see [1]) or the later method by Abou Najm & Atallah (see [2]), the flow through the porous sample is one-directional, with both the flux and the hydraulic gradient being constant in space. Based on a suitable set of observations with different fluids and/or hydraulic gradients, a discrete approximation of the distribution of effective pore sizes is computed. Analogously to the flow through parallel capillaries of different radii within the capillary bundle framework, one can describe the flow within parallel layers in a spatially layered porous media. The very same methodology could then estimate the distribution of individual layers.

We are interested in the analogy of these methods that would be based on the experimental observation of radial flows. The radial flow data are far less advantageous for such analysis, since both the flux and the hydraulic gradient vary in space. It is not clear a priori whether the inversion of the effective pore sizes would be possible, especially from the real data that include some measurement error. On the other hand, the method could be of practical importance, e.g., allowing us to estimate the properties of a layered sediment based on single borehole injection data with shear-thinning fluids.

This research is supported by Czech Science Foundation under grant 21-27291S.

[1] Rodríguez de Castro, A., Agnaou, M., Ahmadi-Sénichault, A., Omari, A., 2020. Numerical porosimetry: Evaluation and comparison of yield stress fluids method, mercury intrusion porosimetry and pore network modelling approaches. Computers and Chemical Engineering 133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2019.106662

[2] Hauswirth, S.C., Abou Najm, M.R., Miller, C.T., 2019. Characterization of the Pore Structure of Porous Media Using non-Newtonian Fluids. Water Resources Research 55, 7182–7195. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025044