This book presents and discusses the construction of mathematical models that describe phenomena of flow and transport in porous media as encountered in civil and environmental engineering, petroleum and agricultural engineering, as well as chemical and geothermal engineering. The phenomena of transport of extensive quantities, like mass of fluid phases, mass of chemical species dissolved in fluid phases, momentum and energy of the solid matrix and of fluid phases occupying the void space of porous medium domains are encountered in all these disciplines. The book, which can also serve as a text for courses on modeling in these disciplines, starts from first principles and focuses on the construction of well-posed mathematical models that describe all these transport phenomena.

This book is an ensemble of six major chapters, an introduction, and a closure on modeling transport phenomena in porous media with applications. Two of the six chapters explain the underlying theories, whereas the rest focus on new applications. Porous media transport is essentially a multi-scale process. Accordingly, the related theory described in the second and third chapters covers both continuum‐ and meso‐scale phenomena. Examining the continuum formulation imparts rigor to the empirical porous media models, while the mesoscopic model focuses on the physical processes within the pores. Porous media models are discussed in the context of a few important engineering applications. These include biomedical problems, gas hydrate reservoirs, regenerators, and fuel cells. The discussion reveals the strengths and weaknesses of existing models as well as future research directions.

The main purpose of this book is to provide the theoretical background to engineers and scientists engaged in modeling transport phenomena in porous media, in connection with various engineering projects, and to serve as a text for senior and graduate courses on transport phenomena in porous media. Such courses are taught in various disciplines, e. g. , civil engineering, chemical engineering, reservoir engineering, agricultural engineering and soil science. In these disciplines, problems are encountered in which various extensive quantities, e. g. , mass and heat, are transported through a porous material domain. Often the porous material contains several fluid phases, and the various extensive quantities are transported simultaneously throughout the multiphase system. In all these disciplines, management decisions related to a system's development and its operation have to be made. To do so, the 'manager', or the planner, needs a tool that will enable him to forecast the response of the system to the implementation of proposed management schemes. This forecast takes the form of spatial and temporal distributions of variables that describe the future state of the considered system. Pressure, stress, strain, density, velocity, solute concentration, temperature, etc. , for each phase in the system, and sometime for a component of a phase, may serve as examples of state variables. The tool that enables the required predictions is the model. A model may be defined as a simplified version of the real (porous medium) system that approximately simulates the excitation-response relations of the latter.

Transport phenomenain porous media are encounteredin various disciplines, e. g. , civil engineering, chemical engineering, reservoir engineering, agricul tural engineering and soil science. In these disciplines, problems are en countered in which various extensive quantities, e. g. , mass and heat, are transported through a porous material domain. Often, the void space of the porous material contains two or three fluid phases, and the various ex tensive quantities are transported simultaneously through the multiphase system. In all these disciplines, decisions related to a system's development and its operation have to be made. To do so a tool is needed that will pro vide a forecast of the system's response to the implementation of proposed decisions. This response is expressed in the form of spatial and temporal distributions of the state variables that describe the system's behavior. Ex amples of such state variables are pressure, stress, strain, density, velocity, solute concentration, temperature, etc. , for each phase in the system, The tool that enables the required predictions is the model. A model may be defined as a simplified version of the real porous medium system and the transport phenomena that occur in it. Because the model is a sim plified version of the real system, no unique model exists for a given porous medium system. Different sets of simplifying assumptions, each suitable for a particular task, will result in different models.

This important resource explores recent theoretical advances and modelling on fluids transport in fractal porous systems and presents a systematic understanding of the characterization of complex microstructure and transport mechanism in fractal porous media. Modelling of Flow and Transport in Fractal Porous Media shows how fractal theory and technology, combined with other modern experiments and numerical simulation methods, will assist researchers and practitioners in modelling of transport properties of fractal porous media, such as fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, mechanical characteristics, and electrical conductivity. Presents the main methods and technologies for transport characterization of fractal porous media, including soils, reservoirs and artificial materials Provides the most recent theoretical advances in modelling of fractal porous media, including gas and vapor transport in fibrous materials, nonlinear seepage flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs, mass transfer of porous nanofibers, and fractal mechanics of unsaturated soils Includes multidisciplinary examples of applications of fractal theory to aid researchers and practitioners in characterizing various porous media structures

Fluid and flow problems in porous media have attracted the attention of industrialists, engineers and scientists from varying disciplines, such as chemical, environmental, and mechanical engineering, geothermal physics and food science. There has been a increasing interest in heat and fluid flows through porous media, making this book a timely and appropriate resource.Each chapter is systematically detailed to be easily grasped by a research worker with basic knowledge of fluid mechanics, heat transfer and computational and experimental methods. At the same time, the readers will be informed of the most recent research literature in the field, giving it dual usage as both a post-grad text book and professional reference.Written by the recent directors of the NATO Advanced Study Institute session on 'Emerging Technologies and Techniques in Porous Media' (June 2003), this book is a timely and essential reference for scientists and engineers within a variety of fields.

In many parts of the world, groundwater resources are under increasing threat from growing demands, wasteful use, and contamination. To face the challenge, good planning and management practices are needed. A key to the management of groundwater is the ability to model the movement of fluids and contaminants in the subsurface. The purpose of this book is to construct conceptual and mathematical models that can provide the information required for making decisions associated with the management of groundwater resources, and the remediation of contaminated aquifers. The basic approach of this book is to accurately describe the underlying physics of groundwater flow and solute transport in heterogeneous porous media, starting at the microscopic level, and to rigorously derive their mathematical representation at the macroscopic levels. The well-posed, macroscopic mathematical models are formulated for saturated, single phase flow, as well as for unsaturated and multiphase flow, and for the transport of single and multiple chemical species. Numerical models are presented and computer codes are reviewed, as tools for solving the models. The problem of seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers is examined and modeled. The issues of uncertainty in model input data and output are addressed. The book concludes with a chapter on the management of groundwater resources. Although one of the main objectives of this book is to construct mathematical models, the amount of mathematics required is kept minimal.