Numerical modeling and simulation of reactive flow and transport processes in subsurface formations


Numerical modeling and simulation of reactive flow and transport processes in subsurface formations

Yuan, T.

Subsurface water-rock interactions involve the coupled phenomena of chemical reactions and fluid transport, in which the chemical reactions between minerals and water can cause mineral dissolution/precipitation and aqueous species adsorption/desorption. The subsurface reactive transport processes play an important role in the enhanced prediction of oil and gas migration in the petroleum reservoirs as well as radionuclides migration in the host rocks. Consequently, an efficient numerical model that can rigorously capture such coupled phenomena is thus essential to the optimized design of implementations for those addressed problems.
In this talk, we first present a 3D mathematical model that couples the Stokes-Brinkman equation and reactive transport model for modeling the coupled processes of reactive flow and transport in fractured porous media. The numerical experiments show that the proposed model can efficiently simulate the coupled processes of fluid flow, reactive transport, and alterations of rock properties in fractured porous media under both linear and radial flow. Secondly, we focus on radionuclides transport and retention in claystone formations using GeoPET analysis and reactive transport modeling. We propose an integrated upscaling workflow to predict effective diffusivity of radionuclides diffusion in the shaly facies of Opalinus clay based on the reconstructed multi-scale digital rocks. The GeoPET measurements provide analytical insights into spatial and temporal tracer distribution, which can be utilized to validate the numerical model. The combination of pore-scale reactivity and core scale transport modeling provides critical insight into the radionuclide migration heterogeneity. We discuss these results with a focus on upscaling strategies to the field scale of host rocks.

  • Invited lecture (Conferences) (Online presentation)
    Numerical simulation of subsurface flow, 25.09.2020, Beijing, China

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-31727
Publ.-Id: 31727