Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2019

Presentation information

[E] Poster

S (Solid Earth Sciences ) » S-CG Complex & General

[S-CG51] Role of volatiles on Earth and planetary dynamics

Thu. May 30, 2019 5:15 PM - 6:30 PM Poster Hall (International Exhibition Hall8, Makuhari Messe)

convener:Takayuki Ishii(Bavarian Research Institute, University of Bayreuth), Eiji Ohtani(Department of Earth and Planetary Materials Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University), Michihiko Nakamura(Division of Earth and Planetary Materials Science, Department of Earth Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University), Bjorn Mysen(Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Inst. Washington)

[SCG51-P01] Permeability prediction of porous media with the finite difference Stokes solver LaMEM

*Philipp Eichheimer1, Wakana Fujita2, Marcel Thielmann1, Anton Popov3, Gregor Golabek1, Boris Kaus3, Maximilian Kottwitz3 (1.Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, 2.Department of Earth Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 3.Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

Keywords:Permeability, Numerical modelling, Digital Rock Physics

The flow of fluids through porous media such as groundwater flow or magma migration is one of the most important processes in geological sciences. The property controlling the efficiency of the flow is the permeability of the rock, thus an accurate determination and prediction of its value is of crucial importance. For this reason, permeability of rocks has been measured across different scales. As laboratory measurements exhibit a range of limitations, the numerical prediction of permeability at conditions where laboratory experiments struggle has become an important method to complement laboratory approaches. At high resolutions, this prediction becomes computationally very expensive, which makes it crucial to develop methods that maximize accuracy. In this work we introduce the open-source finite difference solver LaMEM that can be used to numerically predict the permeability of porous media under laminar conditions. We employ a stencil rescaling method to increase accuracy due to a better description of the solid-fluid interface, thus reducing the computational cost. To validate the method, we perform a series of tests employing both analytical solutions for simplified geometries as well as results from other numerical approaches for more complicated geometries. Furthermore we compare our numerical results to laboratory measurements on glass bead samples with porosities ranging from 20% to 2.5%, showing good agreement.