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Experimental study on non-Darcy flow characteristics in conglomerate porous medium

  • Research Article - Hydrology and Hydraulics
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Abstract

The flow regime in geology is critical to the underground activity. In this study, axial seepage tests within a wide range of grain sizes were conducted to better understand the influence of pore size distribution and pore structure evolution on hydraulic characteristics in porous media. The effect of pore size distribution and evolution on flow regime transition was quantitatively analyzed. The pore size distribution was controlled by varying uniformity coefficient (Cu) (4 < Cu < 24) and curvature coefficient (Cc) (0.2 < Cc < 14). The results show that coefficient size appears to have a positive correlation with the permeability of the granular materials, but cannot impact the transition of flow regime that is mainly dominated by the heterogeneity of the pore structure. Compared to the pore space and the effect of medium, the heterogeneity of pore structure significantly impacts on the occurrence of pre-Darcy flow and directly correlates with the magnitude of inertial forces or fluid velocity. It demonstrates that the curvature coefficient (Cc) is an important characteristic parameter in flow transition. The particle size ratio \(\left( {\frac{{d_{60} }}{{d_{30} }}} \right)\) could be considered as one of the reference characteristic particle sizes for assessing non-Darcy flow characteristics. Subjected to the axial stress, the critical hydraulic gradient for the transition from pre-Darcy to post-Darcy flow was reduced, and even the pre-Darcy flow disappeared. These findings will contribute to the identification of non-Darcy flow transition in groundwater and promote a better understanding of the nonlinear evolution behavior of fluids under underground extraction conditions.

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Abbreviations

V :

The specific discharge, m/s.

K :

The hydraulic conductivity, m/s.

J :

The dimensionless parameter defined as hydraulic gradient.

A :

The Forchheimer equation coefficient (viscous force item), sm−1.

B :

The Forchheimer equation coefficient (inertia force item), s2m−2.

Cu:

The uniformity coefficient.

Cc:

The curvature coefficient.

\(\bar{D}\) :

Mean particle size.

d * :

The content of particles lower than the size d accounts for *% of the total mass.

n c :

The interconnected porosity.

n :

The saturated porosity.

( n i  −  n i + 1 )/n 0 :

The decreasing amplitude of porosity under each level of stress.

σ :

Axial stress

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230031, China. Thank School of Energy and Safety, Anhui University of Science & Technology give the great help in developing the experimental setup. Authors want to express their sincere appreciation of the constructive comments made by the three anonymous reviewers and associate editor for improving the quality of the manuscript.

Funding

This paper was supported by the Excellent Youth Project of Anhui Province (2022AH030086), China; Anhui Provincial General Fund (2308085ME154); Natural Science Research Projects of Universities in Anhui Province (Major Projects) (KJ2021ZD0050); Open Fund of National Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Safe and Accurate Coal Mining (EC2021002), China; National Key R & D Program Key Project (2021YFC28000903-05); Anhui Province Major Basic Research Projects (S2023z04020012); Collaborative Innovation Project of Colleges and Universities of Anhui Province (Grant No. GXXT-2021-019); the Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mining Response and Disaster Prevention and Control in Deep Coal Mines (Grant No. SKLMRDPC19ZZ05); Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center (Grant No. 21KZS216).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Safety, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, Anhui, China

    Tong Zhang, Jun Wu, Yongnan Li, Ruilong Li, Ming Tang & Junlin Mao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Mining Response and Disaster Prevention and Control in Deep Coal Mines, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, China

    Tong Zhang, Jun Wu, Yongnan Li, Ruilong Li, Ming Tang & Junlin Mao

  3. Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Institute of Energy, Hefei, 230031, China

    Tong Zhang, Jun Wu, Yongnan Li, Ruilong Li, Ming Tang & Junlin Mao

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  1. Tong Zhang
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Contributions

TZ involved in methodology, fundings support. JW took part in experiment, writing original draft, data analysis. YL involved in experiment. RL involved in experiment. MT took part in writing review. JM involved in materials.

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Correspondence to Jun Wu.

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Edited by Dr. Ashutosh Sharma (ASSOCIATE EDITOR) / Prof. Jochen Aberle (CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF).

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Zhang, T., Wu, J., Li, Y. et al. Experimental study on non-Darcy flow characteristics in conglomerate porous medium. Acta Geophys. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-024-01333-3

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