Study on Two-Phase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media by Light Transmission Method

Abstract:

The non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) released to the subsurface can form residual ganglia and globules occupying pores and also accumulate and form pools, in which multiphase system forms. Determining transient fluid saturations in a multiphase system is essential to understand the flow characteristics of systems and to perform effective remediation strategies. As a non-destructive and non-invasive laboratory technique utilized for the measurement of liquid saturation in porous media, light transmission is of the lowest cost and safe. Utilization of Coupled Charge Device camera in light transmission systems provides a nearly instantaneous high-density array of spatial measurements over a very large dynamic range. The migration of NAPL and air spariging technique applied to remove NAPL in aquifer systems are typically two-phase flow problem. Because of the natural aquifer normally being heterogeneous, two 2-D sandboxes (Length55cm×width1.3cm×hight45cm) are set up to study the migration of gas and DNAPL in heterogeneous porous media based on light transmission method and its application in two-phase flow. Model D for water/gas system developed by Niemet and Selker (2001) and Model NW-A for water/NAPL system developed by Zhang et al. (2014) are applied for the calculation of fluid saturation in the two experiments, respectively. The gas injection experiments show that the gas moves upward in the irregular channels, piling up beneath the low permeability lenses and starting lateral movement. Bypassing the lenses, the gas moves upward and forms continuous distribution in the top of the sandbox. The faster of gas injects, the wider of gas migration will be. The DNAPL infiltration experiment shows that TCE mainly moves downward as the influence of gravity, stopping vertical infiltration when reaching the low permeability lenses because of its failure to overcome the capillary pressure. Then, TCE accumulates on the surface and starts transverse movement. Bypassing the lenses, TCE migrates down again and eventually accumulates at the bottom of the sandbox. The two models of quantification of fluid saturations for water/gas system and water/NAPL system developed in homogenous porous media give comparatively fit results to the observations and can be used to quantify fluid saturations in heterogeneous porous media.