Drying in nanoporous media with Kelvin effect: Capillary imbibition against evaporation by smoothed particle hydrodynamics method

Abstract

Understanding drying processes in nanoporous media is of great importance in many technological and industrial situations. To better understand how gas moves through clayey rocks, of interest for underground disposal of radioactive wastes, we propose using pore-scale direct numerical simulations. In this study, we use the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method, which has proved to be an effective approach for simulating complex fluid dynamics within porous media at the nanoscale. Our simulations consider capillary-dominated two-phase flow with evaporation and condensation at liquid–gas interfaces, coupled to the diffusion of water vapor in the gas phase, as well as the Kelvin effect, which is a specific feature of nanopores. Our evaporation-condensation model is validated against analytical solutions. The size of the compact support of kernel function and the particle density required to obtain accurate and stable results of capillary pressure are investigated. Drying regimes, capillary-driven and evaporated-driven, are explored. A specific effort is made to highlight the influence of the Kelvin effect on desaturation and the creation of preferential paths for gas flow as well as its impact on drying rate. The role of condensation due to local vapor concentration conditions is also emphasized.