A new matrix for multiphase couplings in a membrane porous medium |
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| Authors: | Xiaohui Chen Michael A Hicks Hywel R Thomas |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK;2. Section of Geo‐Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands;3. Geoenvironmental Research Centre, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | coupling membrane porous media mixture coupling theory multiphase |
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