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ISSN Druckformat: 1091-028X
ISSN Online: 1934-0508
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THREE-DIMENSIONAL STUDY OF PERMEABILITY EFFECT ON CONVECTION IN HETEROGENEOUS POROUS MEDIUM FILLED WITH A TERNARYN HYDROCARBON MIXTURE
ABSTRAKT
In this paper the effect of permeability in the heterogeneous porous medium on fluid transport is studied with consideration of thermodiffusion (Soret effect) and molecular diffusion. A ternary mixture of n-dodecane (C12), tetrahydonaphthalene (THN), and isobutylbenzene (IBB) in a porous medium subjected to a lateral heating is numerically investigated at atmospheric pressure. Employing a single-phase model and Darcy’s law, the continuity and the energy equations are solved numerically using the finite-volume method. The permeability of the matrix (main domain, Km = 10 mD) is kept constant, while the permeability of the subdomains (Kf) is varied. Various permeability ratios (Kf = Km = 10; 100; 1000, and 10000) are examined in this study, which cover a wide range of oil reservoirs. The temperature, fluid flow, and solute fields are discussed in detail in order to show the subdomain’s effect on fluid transport, especially when thermodiffusion is taken into consideration. The results reveal that when the subdomain/matrix permeability ratio is large, the flow in the subdomain region is pronounced. This leads to a nonuniform concentration distribution of the mixture components in the subdomains region.