Soft Matter and Complex Systems Seminar

We consider a porous medium infiltrated by a reactive fluid that triggers coupled dissolution/precipitation reactions at pore surfaces. To study these processes, we model the porous medium as a system of interconnected pipes (Budek, 2012) with the diameter of each segment increasing in proportion to the local reactant consumption. We investigate different evolution regimes, analysing the feedback between dissolution and precipitation and considering different models of reactive area evolution, including passivation processes on mineral surfaces. We benchmark the model against the experimental results of Poonoosamy et al. (2020).

Budek, A., et al. (2012), Network models of dissolution of porous media. Phys. Rev. E, 86, 056318.
Poonoosamy, J., et al. (2020), Effects of solution supersaturation on barite precipitation in porous media and consequences on permeability: Experiments and modelling. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta., 270: 43-60.