14 - Pore-scale transport phenomena in porous media

Abstract

Transport phenomena in porous media commonly exist in the natural world and in various engineering applications. Classical porous media transport theory is based on the continuum approach, applying the statistical volume averaging method with the concept of “representative elementary volume.” The associated formulations are primarily used to predict integral macroscopic characteristics of porous media. The conjugated transport phenomena with pore and matrix structure widely exist in both the natural world and practical applications. It is of critical significance to understand these phenomena accounting for dynamical processes and structure deformation taking place in the inner pores as one of the important topics in the area of porous media. The chapter describes a series of different experimental observations and associated theoretical investigations conducted to understand the transport phenomena at the pore-scale level, including the transport phenomena with/without phase change and chemical reaction, and concerning a wide range of practical applications. As far as research work is concerned, understanding of pore-scale transport is divided into two aspects. Firstly, advanced microscopic techniques are necessary to measure and analyze the integrated three-dimensional information of pore-scale microstructures. Secondly, instead of macroscopic and simple pore geometries, predictive micro-modeling is used to develop the essence of the heat and mass transfer in complex pores in order to better understand the underlying transport mechanism in porous media, and predict the macroscopic behavior of various complicated porous media. This investigation depends on experimental technology, observations, and measurements.