No description available.

Fluid flow in porous media is important for a number of fields including nuclear waste disposal, oil and gas, fuel cells, water treatment and civil engineering. The aim of this work is to improve the current understanding of how the pore space governs the fluid flow in porous media in the context of nuclear waste disposal. The effects of biofilm formation on flow are also investigated. The thesis begins with a review of the current porous media characterisation techniques and the means for converting the pore space into pore network models and their existing applications. Further, I review the current understanding of biofilm lifecycle in the context of porous media and its interactions with fluid flow. The model porous media used in this project is Hollington sandstone. The pore space of the material is characterised by X-ray CT and the equivalent pore networks from two popular pore network extraction algorithms are compared comprehensively. The results indicate that different pore network extraction algorithms could interpret the same pore space rather differently. Despite these differences, the single-phase flow properties of the extracted networks are in good agreement with the estimates from a direct approach. However, it is recommended that any flow or transport study using pore network modelling should entail a sensitivity study aiming to determine if the model results are extraction method specific. Following these results, a pore merging algorithm is introduced aimed to improve the over segmentation of long throats and hence improve the quality of the extracted statistics. The improved model is used to study quantitatively the pore space evolution of shale rock during pyrolysis. Next, the extracted statistics from one of the algorithms is used to explore the potential of regular pore network models for up-scaling the flow properties of porous materials. Analysis showed that the anisotropic flow properties observed in the irregular models are due to the different number of red (critical) features present along the flow direction. This observation is used to construct large regular models that can mimic that behaviour and to discuss the potential of estimating the flow properties of porous media based on their isotropic and anisotropic properties. Finally, a long-term flow-through column experiment is conducted aiming to understand the effects of bacterial colonisation on flow in Hollington sandstone. The results show that such systems are quite complex and are susceptible to perturbations. The flow properties of the sandstone were reduced significantly during the course of the experiment. The possible mechanisms responsible for the observed reductions in permeability are discussed and the need for developing new imaging techniques that can allow examining biofilm development in-situ is underlined as necessary for drawing more definitive conclusions.

Submitted by Maria Cristina (library@lncc.br) on 2015-04-13T14:29:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 thesis_Sica.pdf: 4906333 bytes, checksum: a11473b1ae2e6e483a4cd6709aee3480 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Cristina (library@lncc.br) on 2015-04-13T14:30:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 thesis_Sica.pdf: 4906333 bytes, checksum: a11473b1ae2e6e483a4cd6709aee3480 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-13T14:30:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 thesis_Sica.pdf: 4906333 bytes, checksum: a11473b1ae2e6e483a4cd6709aee3480 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) / We present a locally conservative numerical methodology to simulate the two-phase fow (water and CO2) with mass absorption between the fuid phases and reaction between the CO2 phase and rock in a highly heterogeneous reservoir. This problem is modeled by a system of partial di erential equations, which basically consists in a parabolic subsystem for determining the velocity eld and two non-linear hyperbolic equations for the transport of phases that fow (equations of saturation and concentration). From the numerical point of view, we use the operator splitting technique to properly treat the time scale of each physical phenomenon. We propose the application of a locally conservative nite element method for the total Darcy velocity and a high-order non-oscillatory central- scheme fi nite volume method for nonlinear hyperbolic equations that govern the saturation and concentration of phases. Furthermore, we treat numerically the mass fux between fuid phases, the dissolution of CO2 in the aqueous phase, using the ash methodology that treats numerically equilibrium reactions. The reaction of CO2 with rock (precipitation), which causes changes in porosity and permeability, was treated by applying principles of kinetic theory. / Apresentamos uma metodologia numérica localmente conservativa para a simulação computacional do escoamento bifásico (_agua e CO2) com absorção de massa entre as fases unidas e reação da fase CO2 com a rocha em um reservatório altamente heterogêneo. Este problema é modelado por um sistema de equações diferenciais parciais basicamente composto por um subsistema parabólico para a determinação do campo de velocidades e duas equações hiperbólicas não lineares para o transporte das fases que escoam (equações da saturação e da concentração). Do ponto de vista numérico, utilizaremos a técnica de decomposição de operadores a fim de tratar apropriadamente a escala de tempo de cada fenômeno físico. Propomos a aplicação de um método de elementos finitos localmente conservativo para a velocidade da mistura e um método de volumes finitos não oscilatório de alta ordem baseado em esquemas centrais para as equações hiperbólicas não lineares que governam a saturação e a concentração das fases. Além disso, trataremos numericamente o fluxo de massa entre as fases fluidas, ou seja, a dissolução do CO2 na fase aquosa, a partir da metodologia fash que trata numericamente estas relações de equilíbrio. A reação do CO2 com a rocha (precipitação), que provoca alterações na porosidade e na permeabilidade, foi tratada através da aplicação de princípios da teoria cinética.