Hydraulic Operating Conditions and Particle Concentration Effects on Physical Clogging of a Porous Medium

Alem, Abdellah; Ahfir, Nasre-Dine; Elkawafi, Abdulghadir; Wang, Huaqing

doi:10.1007/s11242-014-0402-8

Cited by 60 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…On the other hand a constant flux will always leave at least one stable channel. This statement is also supported by the experimental findings of Alem et al [15], they tested deposition in a filter, and found only completely clogged final states for constant pressure drop, but steady state configurations for constant flux. We also showed that the final state of a porous medium altered by erosion and deposition crucially depends on the balance between the two effects and a circular pipe is formed when the transition is sharp.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Channelization in porous media driven by erosion and deposition

2017

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We develop and validate a new model to study simultaneous erosion and deposition in threedimensional porous media. We study the changes of the porous structure induced by the deposition and erosion of matter on the solid surface and find that when both processes are active, channelization in the porous structure always occurs. The channels can be stable or only temporary depending mainly on the driving mechanism. Whereas a fluid driven by a constant pressure drop in general does not form steady channels, imposing a constant flux always produces stable channels within the porous structure. Furthermore we investigate how changes of the local deposition and erosion properties affect the final state of the porous structure, finding that the larger the range of wall shear stress for which there is neither erosion nor deposition, the more steady channels are formed in the structure.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Channelization in porous media driven by erosion and deposition

2017

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“…This might be due to the smaller dimensionality of the models presented in [3] or the fact that the flexibility of numerical models allows to approach a critical state more closely than what is possible with our experimental setup. Our results are in line with the results from [2], who investigated the clogging of sand columns and found that under constant flow conditions, the amount of straining (retention of small particles) is decreased compared to constant pressure conditions. In principle, from an algorithmic perspective more performant FBP algorithms [19], iterative reconstructions [11] or wavelet based filters for ring artifact removal [25] could be used.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Tomographic Study of Internal Erosion of Particle Flows in Porous Media

et al. 2018

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In particle-laden flows through porous media, porosity and permeability are significantly affected by the deposition and erosion of particles. Experiments show that the permeability evolution of a porous medium with respect to a particle suspension is not smooth, but rather exhibits significant jumps followed by longer periods of continuous permeability decrease. Their origin seems to be related to internal flow path reorganization by avalanches of deposited material due to erosion inside the porous medium. We apply neutron tomography to resolve the spatio-temporal evolution of the pore space during clogging and unclogging to prove the hypothesis of flow path reorganization behind the permeability jumps. This mechanistic understanding of clogging phenomena is relevant for a number of applications from oil production to filters or suffosion as the mechanisms behind sinkhole formation.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

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“…Some of these phenomena have grave economical and monetary impact such as the performance reduction in water treatment filters or the sand production in oil wells [3]. While it is well known that changes in flow conditions or internal structure can lead to erosion in filters [4][5][6][7], only recently Bianchi et al [8] conducted experiments to study the appearance of erosive bursts in porous media, finding that the resulting jumps in pressure loss follow a power-law distribution. In these experiments suspensions of deionized water carrying 50µm quartz particles are pushed with a peristaltic pump through a filter made of 1 mm glass beads measuring simultaneously pressure drop, flux and particle concentration.…”

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confidence: 99%

Mechanism behind Erosive Bursts In Porous Media

2017

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Erosion and deposition during flow through porous media can lead to large erosive bursts that manifest as jumps in permeability and pressure loss. Here we reveal that the cause of these bursts is the reopening of clogged pores when the pressure difference between two opposite sites of the pore surpasses a certain threshold. We perform numerical simulations of flow through porous media and compare our predictions to experimental results, recovering with excellent agreement shape and power-law distribution of pressure loss jumps, and the behavior of the permeability jumps as a function of particle concentration. Furthermore, we find that erosive bursts only occur for pressure gradient thresholds within the range of two critical values, independent of how the flow is driven. Our findings provide a better understanding of sudden sand production in oil wells and breakthrough in filtration.

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Hydraulic Operating Conditions and Particle Concentration Effects on Physical Clogging of a Porous Medium

Cited by 60 publications

References 38 publications

Channelization in porous media driven by erosion and deposition

Channelization in porous media driven by erosion and deposition

Tomographic Study of Internal Erosion of Particle Flows in Porous Media

Mechanism behind Erosive Bursts In Porous Media

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