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Nanoparticle transport in heterogeneous porous media with particle tracking numerical methods

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Abstract

In this article, transport and retention of nanoparticles that flow in suspension through packed beds with unconsolidated spheres and through consolidated Berea sandstone are numerically explored. The surfaces exhibit electrical charge heterogeneity where particles can deposit blocking the surrounding surface deposition sites. The lattice Boltzmann method with Lagrangian particle tracking are the techniques employed. Four ideal patterns of surface charge heterogeneity are adopted for the packed sphere beds, while a real distribution of charge heterogeneity is determined for the Berea core through micro-CT image segmentation. It is found that particle breakthrough curves do not reach a plateau, unless the pore surfaces are completely saturated. Surface saturation also enhances particle propagation because of the surface blocking mechanism, reducing the effective particle deposition rate. In addition, surface saturation mitigates the effect of the pattern of heterogeneity on particle retention, which might be pronounced when blocking is not taken into account. It is also observed from the case of Berea core that the heterogeneity of the mineralogical surfaces disturbs particle transport depending on the physicochemical properties of the surfaces. Likewise, similarity of the mineralogical surface properties is a prerequisite for the commonly used patch-wise model with Langmuirian blocking to reproduce nanoparticle breakthrough in such porous media.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partially supported by the Advanced Energy Consortium (http://www.beg.utexas.edu/aec/), Project BEG08-022. Member companies include Petrobras, Statoil, Shell, and Total. Part of this work was done while DVP was serving at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. The use of computing facilities at the University of Oklahoma Supercomputing Center for Education and Research (OSCER) and at XSEDE (under allocation CTS-090025) is also gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019-1004, USA

    Ngoc H. Pham & Dimitrios V. Papavassiliou

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  1. Ngoc H. Pham
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  2. Dimitrios V. Papavassiliou
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Correspondence to Dimitrios V. Papavassiliou.

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Pham, N.H., Papavassiliou, D.V. Nanoparticle transport in heterogeneous porous media with particle tracking numerical methods. Comp. Part. Mech. 4, 87–100 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40571-016-0130-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40571-016-0130-7

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