Title: Lattice Boltzmann simulation of solute transport in heterogeneous porous media with conduits to estimate macroscopic continuous time random walk model parameters

Authors: Shadab Anwar, Andrea Cortis, Michael C. Sukop

Addresses: Department of Earth Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, USA. ' Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ' Department of Earth Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, USA

Abstract: Lattice Boltzmann models simulate solute transport in porous media traversed by conduits. Resulting solute breakthrough curves are fitted with Continuous Time Random Walk models. Porous media are simulated by damping flow inertia and, when the damping is large enough, a Darcy|s Law solution instead of the Navier Stokes solution normally provided by the lattice Boltzmann model is obtained. Anisotropic dispersion is incorporated using a direction-dependent relaxation time. Our particular interest is to simulate transport processes outside the applicability of the standard Advection-Dispersion Equation (ADE) including eddy mixing in conduits. The ADE fails to adequately fit any of these breakthrough curves.

Keywords: porous media; solute transport; lattice Boltzmann method; macroscopic CTRW; simulation; heterogeneous porous media; conduits; continuous time random walk; CTRW models; modelling; eddy mixing.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2008.018092

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2008 Vol.8 No.1/2/3/4, pp.213 - 221

Published online: 30 Apr 2008 *

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