Abstract
This paper presents a mixed finite element framework for coupled hydro-mechanical–chemical processes in heterogeneous porous media. The framework combines two types of locally conservative discretization schemes: (1) an enriched Galerkin method for reactive flow, and (2) a three-field mixed finite element method for coupled fluid flow and solid deformation. This combination ensures local mass conservation, which is critical to flow and transport in heterogeneous porous media, with a relatively affordable computational cost. A particular class of the framework is constructed for calcite precipitation/dissolution reactions, incorporating their nonlinear effects on the fluid viscosity and solid deformation. Linearization schemes and algorithms for solving the nonlinear algebraic system are also presented. Through numerical examples of various complexity, we demonstrate that the proposed framework is a robust and efficient computational method for simulation of reactive flow and transport in deformable porous media, even when the material properties are strongly heterogeneous and anisotropic.
Highlights
IntroductionHydro-mechanical–chemical (HMC) processes in porous media, in which fluid flow, solid deformation, and chemical reactions are tightly coupled, appear in a variety of problems ranging from groundwater and contaminant hydrology to subsurface energy production (Nick et al, 2013; Hu and Hueckel, 2013; Pandey et al, 2014; Pandey and Chaudhuri, 2017; Nick et al, 2015; Choo and Sun, 2018; Tran and Jha, 2020)
Through numerical examples of various complexity, we demonstrate that the proposed framework is a robust and efficient computational method for simulation of reactive flow and transport in deformable porous media, even when the material properties are strongly heterogeneous and anisotropic
We present a new framework for computational modeling of coupled HMC processes in porous media, which efficiently provides local mass conservation even when the material properties are strongly heterogeneous and anisotropic
Summary
Hydro-mechanical–chemical (HMC) processes in porous media, in which fluid flow, solid deformation, and chemical reactions are tightly coupled, appear in a variety of problems ranging from groundwater and contaminant hydrology to subsurface energy production (Nick et al, 2013; Hu and Hueckel, 2013; Pandey et al, 2014; Pandey and Chaudhuri, 2017; Nick et al, 2015; Choo and Sun, 2018; Tran and Jha, 2020). Accurate numerical modeling of coupled HMC problems requires a computational method that can robustly handle strong heterogeneity in porous media. The most practical method featuring local mass conservation may be the finite volume method with a standard twopoint flux approximation scheme This standard finite volume method requires the grid to be aligned with the principal directions of the permeability/diffusivity tensors (Lipnikov et al, 2009; Choo and Sun, 2018), which inhibits the use of an unstructured grid when
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