Reversible Reactive Flow Displacements in Porous Media
Date
2013-06-26
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Abstract
The objective of this research is to investigate the effects of the reversibility of chemical reactions on the instability of reactive fluids displacements in porous media. Such instability is encountered in various fields such as engineering processes, natural phenomena and environmental systems. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of this instability is a key to enhancing the efficiencies of reversible reactive flows in porous media. The reactive displacement was modeled through a bimolecular reversible chemical reaction (BRCR), A+B → C. In addition, a mathematical model was adopted for the transport of the chemical species through the porous media.
The first part of the research focuses on the horizontal displacement of a reversible reactive interface in homogeneous porous media, where the importance of the reversibility of the chemical reactions in understanding and optimizing reactive displacement processes such as heavy oil recovery as well as underground water treatment techniques was illustrated. The effects of reversibility were found to vary for different scenarios of frontal instability based on the variation of the viscosities of the chemical species. A linear stability analysis of the problem was performed for short time scales, which allowed determining the importance of the different parameters controlling the process. Furthermore, the non-linear interactions between the chemistry and the hydrodynamics were studied by performing numerical simulations. The simulation results revealed that for a particular set of parameters, reversibility can result in an enhancement of the instability of reactive flows.
The research was also extended to address the influence of reversibility on the efficiency of reactive chromatographic process as well as environmental issues related to geological storage of carbon dioxide. The properties of the instability of a horizontal BRCR interface between solutions of reactant (A) on top of (B) were analyzed. The role of reversibility on the instability of reactive displacements under gravity field where densities mismatch drives the instability was also investigated. The analysis examined the effects of the reversibility where the instability of the flow is driven by the variation of both densities and viscosities of the chemical species. Here too, reversibility enhanced the instability of the flow for some cases of frontal instability.
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Engineering--Chemical, Engineering--Petroleum
Citation
Alhumade, H. A. (2013). Reversible Reactive Flow Displacements in Porous Media (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27661