Pore-scale and multiscale modelling of complex flow processes in porous materials
Understanding flow and reactive transport in porous material is of crucial importance for a wide range of engineering applications, including Carbon Capture and Storage, geothermal energy, construction materials and fuel cells. Numerical simulation can be a fantastic tool to investigate and optimise these processes and, at the application scale, modelling rely on the definition of effective porous media properties (e.g., porosity, permeability, diffusivity). However, the mechanisms (e.g., convection, diffusion, reaction) that control the processes occur at the pore-scale, i.e. in the void between the solid bodies. Pore-scale modelling can be employed to bring insights into the mechanisms and estimate accurate effective porous media properties for large scale modelling by performing simulations on Representative Elementary Volume (REV). However, most porous materials relevant to the energy transition are multiscale, i.e., they have a range of porous structures of different sizes (e.g., nanopores, micropores, vugs and fractures) and it’s the way these structures interact between each other that ultimately controls processes. Because the REV of large pore structures such as vugs and fractures are way too large to perform simulation at a resolution high enough to represent accurately nanopores and micropores, estimating porous media properties for multiscale material require the development of a multiscale workflow. In this talk, I will present recent advances in developing such a workflow, show applications to flow, reactive transport and heat transfer, and discuss the challenges of extending this to multiphase flow.
Understanding flow and reactive transport in porous material is of crucial importance for a wide range of engineering applications, including Carbon Capture and Storage, geothermal energy, construction materials and fuel cells. Numerical simulation can be a fantastic tool to investigate and optimise these processes and, at the application scale, modelling rely on the definition of effective porous media properties (e.g., porosity, permeability, diffusivity). However, the mechanisms (e.g., convection, diffusion, reaction) that control the processes occur at the pore-scale, i.e. in the void between the solid bodies. Pore-scale modelling can be employed to bring insights into the mechanisms and estimate accurate effective porous media properties for large scale modelling by performing simulations on Representative Elementary Volume (REV). However, most porous materials relevant to the energy transition are multiscale, i.e., they have a range of porous structures of different sizes (e.g., nanopores, micropores, vugs and fractures) and it’s the way these structures interact between each other that ultimately controls processes. Because the REV of large pore structures such as vugs and fractures are way too large to perform simulation at a resolution high enough to represent accurately nanopores and micropores, estimating porous media properties for multiscale material require the development of a multiscale workflow. In this talk, I will present recent advances in developing such a workflow, show applications to flow, reactive transport and heat transfer, and discuss the challenges of extending this to multiphase flow.
