To properly simulate hard rock with a high ratio of the uniaxial compressive strength to tensile strength(UCS/TS) and realistic strength-failure envelope,the rock deformation and mechanical characteristics were discussed in detail when the particle simulation method with the clump parallel-bond model(CPBM) was used to conduct a series of numerical experiments at the specimen scale.Meanwhile,the effects of the loading procedure and crack density on the mechanical behavior of a specimen,which was modeled by the particle simulation method with the CPBM,were investigated.The related numerical results have demonstrated that:1) The uniaxial compressive strength(UCS),tensile strength(TS) and elastic modulus are overestimated when the conventional loading procedure is used in the particle simulation method with the CPBM; 2) The elastic modulus,strength and UCS/TS decrease,while Poisson ratio increases with the increase of the crack density in the particle simulation method with the CPBM; 3) The particle simulation method with the CPBM can be used to reproduce a high value of UCS/TS(>10),as well as a high friction angle and reasonable cohesion strength; 4) As the confining pressure increases,both the peak strength of the simulated specimen and the number of microscopic cracks increase,but the ratio of tensile cracks number to shear cracks number decreases in the particle simulation method with the CPBM; 5) Compared with the conventional parallel-bond model,the CPBM can be used to reproduce more accurate results for simulating the rock deformation and mechanical characteristics.
This paper presents a unified theory to deal with when, why and how a sharp acidization dissolution front(ADF), which is represented by the porosity distribution curve, can take place in an acidization dissolution system composed of fluid-saturated porous rocks. The theory contains the following main points:(1) A reaction rate of infinity alone can lead to a sharp ADF of the Stefan-type in the acidization dissolution system. This sharp front is unstable when permeability in the downstream region is smaller than that in the upstream region.(2) For a finite reaction rate, when the acid dissolution capacity number approaches zero,the ADF can have a sharp profile of the Stefan-type either on a much smaller time scale or on a much larger time scale than the dissolution time scale. In the former case, the ADF may become unstable on a much larger time scale than the transport time scale, while in the latter case, it may become unstable if the growth rate of a small perturbation is greater than zero.(3) On the dissolution time scale, even if both the reaction rate is finite and the acid dissolution capacity number approaches zero, the profile of an ADF may not be sharp because it is in a transient state. In this case, not only can an ADF change its profile with time, but also its morphology can grow if the growth rate of a small perturbation is greater than zero. Due to the involvement of both the change rate and the growth rate of the ADF profile, it is necessary to conduct a transient linear stability analysis for determining whether or not a time-dependent ADF is stable in the acidization dissolution system.
Convective pore-fluid flow (CPFF) plays a critical role in generating mineral deposits and oil reservoirs within the deep Earth. Therefore, theoretical understanding and numerical modeling of the thermodynamic process that triggers and controls the CPFF are extremely important for the exploration of new mineral deposits and underground oil resources. From the viewpoint of science, the CPFF within the upper crust can be treated as a kind of thermodynamic instability problem of pore-fluid in fluid-saturated porous media. The key issue of dealing with this kind of problem is to assess whether a nonlinear thermodynamic system under consideration is supercritical. To overcome limitations of using theoretical analysis and experimental methods in dealing with the CPFF problems within the upper crust, finite element modeling has been broadly employed for solving this kind of problem over the past two decades. The main purpose of this paper is to overview recent developments and applications of finite element modeling associated with solving the CPFF problems in large length-scale geological systems of complicated geometries and complex material distributions. In particular, two kinds of commonly-used finite element modeling approaches, namely the steady-state and transient-state approaches, and their advantages/disadvantages are thoroughly presented and discussed.
In order to simulate the instability phenomenon of a nonaqueous phase liquid(NAPL) dissolution front in a computational model, the intrinsic characteristic length is commonly used to determine the length scale at which the instability of the NAPL dissolution front can be initiated. This will require a huge number of finite elements if a whole NAPL dissolution system is simulated in the computational model. Even though modern supercomputers might be used to tackle this kind of NAPL dissolution problem, it can become prohibitive for commonly-used personal computers to do so. The main purpose of this work is to investigate whether or not the whole NAPL dissolution system of an annular domain can be replaced by a trapezoidal domain, so as to greatly reduce the requirements for computer efforts. The related simulation results have demonstrated that when the NAPL dissolution system under consideration is in a subcritical state, if the dissolution pattern around the entrance of an annulus domain is of interest, then a trapezoidal domain cannot be used to replace an annular domain in the computational simulation of the NAPL dissolution system.However, if the dissolution pattern away from the vicinity of the entrance of an annulus domain is of interest, then a trapezoidal domain can be used to replace an annular domain in the computational simulation of the NAPL dissolution system. When the NAPL dissolution system under consideration is in a supercritical state, a trapezoidal domain cannot be used to replace an annular domain in the computational simulation of the NAPL dissolution system.
Homogeneity and heterogeneity are two totally different concepts in nature.At the particle length scale,rocks exhibit strong heterogeneity in their constituents and porosities.When the heterogeneity of porosity obeys the random uniform distribution,both the mean value and the variance of porosities in the heterogeneous porosity field can be used to reflect the overall heterogeneous characteristics of the porosity field.The main purpose of this work is to investigate the effects of porosity heterogeneity on chemical dissolution front instability in fluid-saturated rocks by the computational simulation method.The related computational simulation results have demonstrated that:1) since the propagation speed of a chemical dissolution front is inversely proportional to the difference between the final porosity and the mean value of porosities in the initial porosity field,an increase in the extent of the porosity heterogeneity can cause an increase in the mean value of porosities in the initial porosity field and an increase in the propagation speed of the chemical dissolution front.2) An increase in the variance of porosities in the initial porosity field can cause an increase in the instability probability of the chemical dissolution front in the fluid-saturated rock.3) The greater the mean value of porosities in the initial porosity field,the quicker the irregular morphology of the chemical dissolution front changes in the supercritical chemical dissolution systems.This means that the irregular morphology of a chemical dissolution front grows quicker in a porosity field of heterogeneity than it does in that of homogeneity when the chemical dissolution system is at a supercritical stage.
The natural phenomenon associated with the chemical dissolution of dissolvable minerals of rocks can be employed to develop innovative technology in mining and oil extracting engineering. This paper presents a new alternative approach for theoretically dealing with chemical dissolution front （CDF） propagation in fluid-saturated carbonate rocks. Note that the CDF is represented by the porosity front in this study. In this new approach, the porosity, pore-fluid velocity and acid concentration are directly used as independent variables. To illustrate how to use the present new approach, an aeidization dissolution system （ADS） consisting of carbonate rocks, which belongs to one of the many general chemical dissolution systems （CDSs）, is taken as an application example. When the acid dissolution capacity （ADC） number （that is defined as the ratio of the volume of the carbonate rock dissolved by an acid to that of the acid） approaches zero, the present new approach can be used to obtain analytical solutions for the stable ADS. However, if the ADC number is a nonzero finite number, then numerical solutions can be only obtained for the ADS, especially when the ADS is in an unstable state. The related theoretical results have demonstrated that： （1） When the ADS is in a stable state and in the case of the ADC number approaching zero, the present new approach is mathematically equivalent to the previous approach, in which the porosity, pore-fluid pressure and acid concentration are used as independent variables. However, when the ADS is in an unstable state, the use of the present new approach leads to a free parameter that needs to be determined by some other ways. （2） The existence of a non-step-type dissolution front within a transient region should at least satisfy that none of the ADC number, injected acid velocity and reciprocal of the dissolution reaction rate is equal to zero in the stable ADS.
This paper deals with how the purely mathematical approach can be used to solve transient-state instability problems of dissolution-timescale reactive infiltration(DTRI) in fluid-saturated porous rocks. Three key steps involved in such an approach are:(1) to mathematically derive an analytical solution(known as the base solution or conventional solution) for a quasi-steady state problem of the dissolution timescale, which is viewed as a frozen state of the original transient-state instability problem;(2)to mathematically deduce a group of first-order perturbation partial-differential equations(PDEs) for the quasi-steady state problem;(3) to mathematically derive an analytical solution(known as the perturbation solution or unconventional solution) for this group of first-order perturbation PDEs. Because of difficulty in mathematically solving a transient-state instability problem of DTRI in general cases, only a special case, in which some nonlinear coupling between governing PDEs of the problem can be decoupled, is considered to illustrate these three key steps in this study. The related theoretical results demonstrated that the transient chemical dissolution front can become unstable in the DTRI system of large Zh numbers when the long wavelength perturbations are applied to the system. This new finding may lay the theoretical foundation for developing innovative technique to exploit shale gas resources in the deep Earth.
Many scientific and engineering problems need to use numerical methods and algorithms to obtain computational simulation results because analytical solutions are seldom available for them.The chemical dissolution-front instability problem in fluid-saturated porous rocks is no exception.Since this kind of instability problem has both the conventional(i.e.trivial)and the unconventional(i.e.nontrivial)solutions,it is necessary to examine the effects of different numerical algorithms,which are used to solve chemical dissolution-front instability problems in fluid-saturated porous rocks.Toward this goal,two different numerical algorithms associated with the commonly-used finite element method are considered in this paper.In the first numerical algorithm,the porosity,pore-fluid pressure and acid/solute concentration are selected as basic variables,while in the second numerical algorithm,the porosity,velocity of pore-fluid flow and acid/solute concentration are selected as basic variables.The particular attention is paid to the effects of these two numerical algorithms on the computational simulation results of unstable chemical dissolution-front propagation in fluid-saturated porous rocks.The related computational simulation results have demonstrated that:1)the first numerical algorithm associated with the porosity-pressure-concentration approach can realistically simulate the evolution processes of unstable chemical dissolution-front propagation in chemical dissolution systems.2)The second numerical algorithm associated with the porosity-velocity-concentration approach fails to simulate the evolution processes of unstable chemical dissolution-front propagation.3)The extra differential operation is the main source to result in the failure of the second numerical algorithm.
The particle simulation method is used to solve free-surface slurry flow problems that may be encountered in several scientific and engineering fields.The main idea behind the use of the particle simulation method is to treat granular or other materials as an assembly of many particles.Compared with the continuum-mechanics-based numerical methods such as the finite element and finite volume methods,the movement of each particle is accurately described in the particle simulation method so that the free surface of a slurry flow problem can be automatically obtained.The major advantage of using the particle simulation method is that only a simple numerical algorithm is needed to solve the governing equation of a particle simulation system.For the purpose of illustrating how to use the particle simulation method to solve free-surface flow problems,three examples involving slurry flow on three different types of river beds have been considered.The related particle simulation results obtained from these three examples have demonstrated that:1) The particle simulation method is a promising and useful method for solving free-surface flow problems encountered in both the scientific and engineering fields;2) The shape and irregular roughness of a river bed can have a significant effect on the free surface morphologies of slurry flow when it passes through the river bed.
