Two approaches to modeling unstable flow and mixing of variable density fluids in porous media

Abstract

Density variation of aqueous phase fluids flowing in a porous medium, resulting from spatial and temporal variation of solute concentration, often gives rise to unstable flow, and therefore has a significant effect on solute transport. Studies on simulating unstable flow and mixing of variable density fluids in seemingly homogeneous porous media are rare. In this study, a three-dimensional (3-D) and a one-dimensional (1-D) model were developed to simulate unstable flow and mixing in a vertical, nominally 1-D system. In the 3-D model, the fluid flow and solute transport equations were solved numerically with a very fine spatial discretization. The 1-D numerical model was derived from a theoretical model to simulate the flow and mixing of fluids with variable density and viscosity at the field scale. To evaluate the models, simulated results were compared with experimental data from displacement experiments in a vertical sand column. The results show that the 1-D model provides fairly good prediction of breakthrough curves and that the 3-D model is able to qualitatively simulate breakthrough curves for highly unstable flow and mixing.