Self‐organization during reactive fluid flow in a porous medium

Renard, François; Gratier, Jean‐Pierre; Ortoleva, P.; Brosse, É.; Bazin, Brigitte

doi:10.1029/97gl03781

Cited by 51 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The effective specific surface area is not known and could vary by order of magnitudes. Renard et al [1998] reported a value of 350 m −1 and Bercovici et al [2001] argue that it can be as high as 10 6 m −1 . Ni and Beckermann [1991] show that the effective specific surface area is related to the porosity as A ∼ϕ(1 − ϕ).…”

Section: Model Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt dissolution and sinkhole formation along the Dead Sea shore

2006

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[1] The formation of sinkholes at the Dead Sea area reflects subsurface cavities formed by salt dissolution. This dissolution is related to the recession of the Dead Sea; the groundwater level and the fresh/saline water interface along the shore decline at a similar rate to the rate of the Dead Sea recession, and brines that used to occupy layers below this interface are flushed out by freshwater. Our finite element modeling shows that dissolution of this salt layer is a plausible mechanism to explain the rapid creation of subsurface holes that collapse and form sinkholes. The positive feedback between the rate of flow, the rate of chemical reaction, and the change in permeability accelerates the dissolution processes and might result in ''reactive infiltration instability'' which is manifested in ''fingers'' of cavities, into which fluid is channeled, and salt is dissolved. The spacing between the sinkholes and the rate of their creation is controlled by several factors including properties of lineaments/faults, incoming groundwater flux, the salinity of the incoming groundwater, the rate of dissolution, the effective specific surface area, the permeability of the salt and clay layers, the permeability-porosity relation, the dispersivity, and the thickness of the layers. We show that the creation of sinkholes occurs only under specific conditions. These conditions must cause an unstable dissolution front which then causes formation of cavities and eventually sinkholes. The simulations, which utilized the best estimated parameters of the studied area, yield results that are similar to those exhibited in the field.

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Section: Model Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt dissolution and sinkhole formation along the Dead Sea shore

2006

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“…This occurs in viscous fingering if a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one [1]. Fingering can also result from a change in permeability in a porous medium as in reactive dissolution instabilities [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In these cases, the invading fluid contains chemicals which dissolve the solid matrix of the porous medium, leading to a related increase in porosity behind the reaction front.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The experiments and nonlinear simulations of a RDC model give results in good agreement. We emphasize that the modeling of this precipitation-induced fingering is analogous to that of reactive viscous fingering [20,21,[24][25][26][27] and dissolution-driven fingering [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] with nonmonotonic profiles. The present study paves the way to future detailed analysis of the influence of precipitation reactions on the stability of displacement processes in porous media.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hydrodynamic Fingering Instability Induced by a Precipitation Reaction

et al. 2014

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We experimentally demonstrate that a precipitation reaction at the miscible interface between two reactive solutions can trigger a hydrodynamic instability due to the buildup of a locally adverse mobility gradient related to a decrease in permeability. The precipitate results from an A þ B → C type of reaction when a solution containing one of the reactants is injected into a solution of the other reactant in a porous medium or a Hele-Shaw cell. Fingerlike precipitation patterns are observed upon displacement, the properties of which depend on whether A displaces B or vice versa. A mathematical modeling of the underlying mobility profile confirms that the instability originates from a local decrease in mobility driven by the localized precipitation. Nonlinear simulations of the related reaction-diffusion-convection model reproduce the properties of the instability observed experimentally. In particular, the simulations suggest that differences in diffusivity between A and B may contribute to the asymmetric characteristics of the fingering precipitation patterns. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.024502 PACS numbers: 47.55.P−, 47.15.gp, 47.56.+r, 47.70.Fw Chemical reactions are able to influence and even more strikingly induce hydrodynamic fingering instabilities of a frontal interface when a high mobility fluid displaces a less mobile one in a porous medium. This occurs in viscous fingering if a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one [1]. Fingering can also result from a change in permeability in a porous medium as in reactive dissolution instabilities [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In these cases, the invading fluid contains chemicals which dissolve the solid matrix of the porous medium, leading to a related increase in porosity behind the reaction front. As a result, the resistance to flow decreases in these higher mobility reactive zones, which favors further dissolution, giving, thus, a positive feedback leading to instability. Dispersion of reactants is the stabilizing factor counteracting the growth of fluid channels in order to provide a fingered pattern with a given characteristic wavelength [2,5,7,10]. The reverse case of precipitation is not expected to destabilize an interface as the related decrease in permeability and, hence, in mobility behind the front is expected to block the flow rather than destabilize it. There is, however, increased interest to understand the effect of precipitation reactions during flow displacements in porous media in the context of CO 2 sequestration techniques [11][12][13][14]. Mineralization by which CO 2 injected in a porous medium could undergo precipitation reactions (to yield carbonates, for instance [13][14][15][16]) is indeed promising in view of a permanent safe storage of CO 2 in geological strata. Understanding the conditions in which precipitations can affect the stability of the spreading CO 2 plumes [12] is, thus, particularly important.In this context, we demonstrate experimentally and explain theoretically how a precipitation reaction localized at th...

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“…Nevertheless, the mechanism of the preferential flow caused by NAPL dissolution fingering is different from that caused by medium heterogeneity. From the physical point of view, the former is considered as an emerging phenomenon due to the instability of a nonlinear system (Chadam et al, 1986(Chadam et al, , 1988Liu, 2002, 2004;Chen et al, 2009;Ortoleva et al, 1987;Renard et al, 1998;Zhao et al, 2008aZhao et al, , 2008bZhao et al, , 2008cZhao et al, , 2009Zhao et al, , 2010aZhao et al, , 2010b, while the latter is considered as the conventional phenomenon of a nonlinear system (Alt-Epping and Smith, 2001;Maji and Sudicky, 2008;Ormond and Ortoleva, 2000;Raffensperger and Garven, 1995;Schafer et al, 1998;Lasaga, 1990, 1994;Yeh and Tripathi, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%