Toshihiro Sakaki

Experimental investigation of dynamic effects in capillary pressure: Grain size dependency and upscaling

[1] The macroscopic flow equations used to predict two-phase flow typically utilizes a capillary pressure-saturation relationship determined under equilibrium conditions. Theoretical reasoning, experimental evidence, and numerical modeling results have indicated that when one fluid phase replaces another fluid, this relationship may not be unique but may depend on the rate at which the phase saturations change in response to changes in phase pressures. This nonuniqueness likely depends on a variety of factors including soil-fluid properties and possibly physical scale. To quantify this dependency experimentally, direct measurements of equilibrium and dynamic capillary pressure-saturation relationships were developed for two Ottawa sands with different grain sizes using a 20 cm long column. A number of replicate air-water experiments were conducted to facilitate statistical comparison of capillary pressure-saturation relationships. Water and air pressures and phase saturations were measured at three different vertical locations in the sand column under different desaturation rates (1) to measure local capillary pressure-saturation relationships (static and dynamic); (2) to quantify the dynamic coefficient T , a measure of the magnitude of observed dynamic effects, as a function of water saturation for different grain sizes and desaturation rates; (3) to investigate the importance of grain size on measured dynamic effects; and (4) to assess the importance of sample scale on the magnitude of dynamic effects in capillary pressure. A comparison of the static and dynamic P c -S w relationships showed that at a given water saturation, capillary pressure measured under transient water drainage conditions is statistically larger than capillary pressure measured under equilibrium or static conditions, consistent with thermodynamic theory. The dynamic coefficient T , used in the expression relating the static and dynamic capillary pressures to the desaturation rate was dependant on porous media mean grain size but not on the desaturation rate. Results also suggest that the magnitude of the dynamic coefficient did not increase with the increased averaging volume considered in this study, as has been reported in the literature. This work suggests that dynamic effects in capillary pressure should be included in numerical models used to predict multiphase flow in systems when saturations change rapidly, particularly in fine-grained soil systems (e.g., CO 2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, air sparging for remediation).

A wireless sensor network based closed-loop system for subsurface contaminant plume monitoring

A closed-loop contaminant plume monitoring system is being developed that integrates wireless sensor network based monitoring with numerical models for subsurface plumes. The system is based on a novel virtual sensor network architecture that supports the formation, usage, adaptation, and maintenance of dynamic subsets of nodes. This automated monitoring system is intended to capture transient plumes to assess the source, track plumes in real-time, and predict future plumes behavior using numerical models that can be continuously re-calibrated by sensor data. This paper presents recent progress made in (1) developing a proof-of-concept study using a porous media test bed with sensors deployed; and (2) developing distributed algorithms for virtual sensor networking.

On the value of lithofacies data for improving groundwater flow model accuracy in a three‐dimensional laboratory‐scale synthetic aquifer

Improvement of the prediction accuracy of groundwater flow models has been receiving substantial attention from many researchers through the development of enhanced characterizations of the structure of subsurface lithofacies and of the distribution of hydraulic conductivity. In this study, we investigated how incorporating increasing amounts of lithofacies data into the construction of a conceptual model of aquifer heterogeneity helps to reduce prediction error and uncertainty in groundwater flow models. An approach based on both laboratory experiments and numerical simulations was tested using data from an intermediate-scale synthetic heterogeneous aquifer. The heterogeneous aquifer consisted of five lithofacies, corresponding to five test sands. Three pumping tests were conducted and provided experimental data to perform groundwater flow model calibration and validation. The pumping tests were also simulated numerically in order to provide a series of error-free synthetic hydraulic data sets. On the basis of Markov chains models of transition probabilities, a total of 901 random realizations of the heterogeneous distribution of lithofacies were created using varying amounts of conditioning lithofacies data sampled along randomly placed hypothetical boreholes. For each realization and for two other simplified lithofacies models, parameter estimation was performed to estimate the hydraulic conductivity of the lithofacies using the experimental and synthetic hydraulic data from the three pumping tests. The results generally showed that the use of more lithofacies data in the construction of the lithofacies realizations led to an improvement in groundwater flow model prediction accuracy. When using the error-free synthetic hydraulic data, the calibration-prediction error and uncertainty decreased drastically when the mean borehole spacing was on the order of twice the horizontal correlation length or less. When the experimental hydraulic data were used, this drastic improvement in the calibration-prediction error was somewhat obscured and, in some cases, exhibited a local minimum. This local minimum, although beyond practical limits, corresponded to an optimal number of boreholes. Finally, the effect of incorporating more lithofacies data for the construction of lithofacies realizations was found to have a similar impact on the quality of model calibration and on the quality of predictive simulations conducted using the calibrated model.

Correlating Gas Transport Parameters and X-Ray Computed Tomography Measurements in Porous Media

Abstract Gas transport parameters and X-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements in porous medium under controlled and identical conditions provide a useful methodology for studying the relationships among them, ultimately leading to a better understanding of subsurface gaseous transport and other soil physical processes. The objective of this study was to characterize the relationships between gas transport parameters and soil-pore geometry revealed by X-ray CT. Sands of different shapes with a mean particle diameter (d50) ranging from 0.19 to 1.51 mm were used as porous media under both air-dried and partially saturated conditions. Gas transport parameters including gas dispersivity (&agr;), diffusivity (DP/D0), and permeability (ka) were measured using a unified measurement system (UMS). The 3DMA-Rock computational package was used for analysis of three-dimensional CT data. A strong linear relationship was found between &agr; and tortuosity calculated from gas transport parameters ( ), indicating that gas dispersivity has a linear and inverse relationship with gas diffusivity. A linear relationship was also found between ka and d50/TUMS2, indicating a strong dependency of ka on mean particle size and direct correlation with gas diffusivity. Tortuosity (TMFX) and equivalent pore diameter (deq.MFX) analyzed from microfocus X-ray CT increased linearly with increasing d50 for both Granusil and Accusand and further showing no effect of particle shape. The TUMS values showed reasonably good agreement with TMFX values. The ka showed a strong relationship when plotted against deq.MFX/TMFX2, indicating its strong dependency on pore size distribution and tortuosity of pore space.

Soil Moisture and Thermal Behavior in the Vicinity of Buried Objects Affecting Remote Sensing Detection: Experimental and Modeling Investigation

Improvements in buried mine detection using remote sensing technology rest on understanding the effects on sensor response of spatial and temporal variability created by soil and environmental conditions. However, research efforts on mine detection have generally emphasized sensor development, while less effort has been made to evaluate the effects of the environmental conditions in which the mines are placed. If the processes governing moisture and temperature distribution near the ground surface can be captured, sensor development and deployment can be more realistically tailored to particular operational scenarios and technologies. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of the soil environment on landmine detection by studying the influence of the thermal boundary conditions at the land-atmosphere interface and the buried objects themselves on the spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture around shallow-buried objects. Two separate large tank experiments were performed with buried objects with different thermal properties. Experimental results were compared to results from a fully coupled heat and mass transfer numerical model. Comparison of experimental and numerical results suggests that the vapor enhancement factor used to adjust the vapor diffusive flux described based on Ficks law is not necessary under dry soil conditions. Data and simulations from this study show that the thermal signature of a buried object depends on the complex interaction among a soils water content and its thermal and hydraulic properties. Simulated thermal and saturation contrasts were generally very different for a buried landmine than for other buried objects.

Heterogeneity‐enhanced gas phase formation in shallow aquifers during leakage of CO2‐saturated water from geologic sequestration sites

A primary concern for geologic carbon storage is the potential for leakage of stored carbon dioxide (CO2) into the shallow subsurface where it could degrade the quality of groundwater and surface water. In order to predict and mitigate the potentially negative impacts of CO2 leakage, it is important to understand the physical processes that CO2 will undergo as it moves through naturally heterogeneous porous media formations. Previous studies have shown that heterogeneity can enhance the evolution of gas phase CO2 in some cases, but the conditions under which this occurs have not yet been quantitatively defined, nor tested through laboratory experiments. This study quantitatively investigates the effects of geologic heterogeneity on the process of gas phase CO2 evolution in shallow aquifers through an extensive set of experiments conducted in a column that was packed with layers of various test sands. Soil moisture sensors were utilized to observe the formation of gas phase near the porous media interfaces. Results indicate that the conditions under which heterogeneity controls gas phase evolution can be successfully predicted through analysis of simple parameters, including the dissolved CO2 concentration in the flowing water, the distance between the heterogeneity and the leakage location, and some fundamental properties of the porous media. Results also show that interfaces where a less permeable material overlies a more permeable material affect gas phase evolution more significantly than interfaces with the opposite layering.

Effect of NAPL Source Morphology on Mass Transfer in the Vadose Zone

The generation of vapor-phase contaminant plumes within the vadose zone is of interest for contaminated site management. Therefore, it is important to understand vapor sources such as non-aqueous-phase liquids (NAPLs) and processes that govern their volatilization. The distribution of NAPL, gas, and water phases within a source zone is expected to influence the rate of volatilization. However, the effect of this distribution morphology on volatilization has not been thoroughly quantified. Because field quantification of NAPL volatilization is often infeasible, a controlled laboratory experiment was conducted in a two-dimensional tank (28 cm × 15.5 cm × 2.5 cm) with water-wet sandy media and an emplaced trichloroethylene (TCE) source. The source was emplaced in two configurations to represent morphologies encountered in field settings: (1) NAPL pools directly exposed to the air phase and (2) NAPLs trapped in water-saturated zones that were occluded from the air phase. Airflow was passed through the tank and effluent concentrations of TCE were quantified. Models were used to analyze results, which indicated that mass transfer from directly exposed NAPL was fast and controlled by advective-dispersive-diffusive transport in the gas phase. However, sources occluded by pore water showed strong rate limitations and slower effective mass transfer. This difference is explained by diffusional resistance within the aqueous phase. Results demonstrate that vapor generation rates from a NAPL source will be influenced by the soil water content distribution within the source. The implications of the NAPL morphology on volatilization in the context of a dynamic water table or climate are discussed.