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A new matrix for multiphase couplings in a membrane porous medium
Author(s) -
Chen Xiaohui,
Wang Manhui,
Hicks Michael A.,
Thomas Hywel R.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.419
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1096-9853
pISSN - 0363-9061
DOI - 10.1002/nag.2783
Subject(s) - porous medium , non equilibrium thermodynamics , multiphase flow , darcy's law , transport phenomena , coupling (piping) , matrix (chemical analysis) , membrane , diffusion , osmosis , thermal , mechanics , thermodynamics , porosity , materials science , chemistry , physics , geotechnical engineering , geology , chromatography , biochemistry , metallurgy
Summary The empirical Darcy's law of water transport in porous media, Fick's law of chemical diffusion, and Fourier's law of thermal transport have been widely used in geophysics/geochemistry for over 150 years. However, the strong couplings between water, temperature, and chemicals in a membrane porous medium have made these laws inapplicable and present a significant hurdle to the understanding of multiphase flow in such a material. Extensive experiments over the past century have observed chemical osmosis and thermal osmosis, but a model for understanding their underlying physicochemical basis has remained unavailable, because of the highly cross‐disciplinary and multiscale‐multiphase nature of the coupling. Based on the fundamental principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and mixture coupling theory, a rigorously theoretical and mathematical framework is proposed and a general model accounting for all of the coupled influences is developed. This leads to a simple and robust mathematical matrix for studying multiphase couplings in a membrane porous medium when all chemical components are electrically neutral.