ABSTRACT

Fluid flow and transport of cement particles in a liquid through fine sand columns are studied by assuming that the heterogeneous medium composed of the initial granular skeleton, filtered cement and the interstitial fluid phase can be replaced by a continuous equivalent medium at the macroscopic level. Consequently, the method of homogenization for periodic structures (HPS) is used to identify the effective permeability tensor evolution under the effect of cement filtration. The expression of the macroscopic permeability tensor derived through the HPS procedure is shown to depend on the permeating fluid viscosity and the geometrical arrangement of the sand grains and cement deposit within the microstructure. Numerical computations are made using various three-dimensional microstructures, and the model results are confronted with one-dimensional filtration experiments performed on small-scale columns in the laboratory.