Investigation of Drift Phenomena at the Pore Scale during Flow and Transport in Porous Media

Ibrahim Ayuba, Lateef T. Akanji, Jefferson L. Gomes and Gabriel K. Falade
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Ibrahim Ayuba: School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK
Lateef T. Akanji: School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK
Jefferson L. Gomes: School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK
Gabriel K. Falade: Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 200284, Nigeria

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 19, 1-36

Abstract: This paper reports an analytical study conducted to investigate the behaviour of tracers undergoing creeping flow between two parallel plates in porous media. A new coupled model for the characterisation of fluid flow and transport of tracers at pore scale is formulated. Precisely, a weak-form solution of radial transport of tracers under convection–diffusion-dominated flow is established using hypergeometric functions. The velocity field associated with the radial transport is informed by the solution of the Stokes equations. Channel thickness as a function of velocities, maximum Reynolds number of each thickness as a function of maximum velocities and concentration profile for different drift and dispersion coefficients are computed and analysed. Analysis of the simulation results reveals that the dispersion coefficient appears to be a significant factor controlling the concentration distribution of the tracer at pore scale. Further analysis shows that the drift coefficient appears to influence tracer concentration distribution but only after a prolonged period. This indicates that even at pore scale, tracer drift characteristics can provide useful information about the flow and transport properties of individual pores in porous media.

Keywords: pore scale; tracers; drift; convection and diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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