Effect of particle size and concentration on the migration behavior in porous media by coupling computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method

Abstract

Particle migration and the deposition process in porous media have received wide attention, especially in petroleum and chemical industries. Several studies have been conducted to address this issue, however, the mechanism is still ambiguous. Here we investigate the process of particle migration in porous media by coupling computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method. The classical Ergun equation and the DKT phenomenon were employed to validate our program. During the migration process, we observed that owing to the effect of particle exclusion and bridging, the behavior of suspended particles is primarily controlled by particle size. Particles will occupy the pore space and reduce the permeability of porous media gradually when the particle concentration increases. However, as the external filtration cake grows the permeability tends to be insensitive to particle concentrations. It also suggests the existence of the critical particle size which results in a remarkable decrease of permeability. Keywords: porous media; particle migration, computational fluid dynamics, discrete element method, fluid flow.