Experimental Investigation on Dispersion Within Porous Media Influenced by Particle sizes and Pore-Scale Heterogeneity

As heat tracing gains versatility in hydrogeological applications, precise thermal dispersion modeling becomes essential. However, limited experimental data for thermal dispersion, influenced by several factors such as particle size or shape, poses a challenge to the understanding of the relationship between flow velocity and thermal dispersion coefficient. To fill these gaps, the solute and heat tracer experiments were conducted using two different sizes of sand. Thermal and solute dispersion were analyzed by applying analytical models. We also systematically collected and revisited literature data to comprehensively interpret the influences of particle size, shape, and pore-scale heterogeneity on dispersion. The results exhibited that the solute and thermal dispersivity were comparable when the dispersion linearly increased to the velocity. However, within the transition regime (Pe < 5), a departure from linearity was observed (R² < 0.9). The deviation was more pronounced in smaller particle size due to pore-scale heterogeneity arising from the complexity of pore network. Consequently, our findings emphasize the potential necessity for caution when modeling thermal dispersion based on solute dispersion within natural porous materials.

Keywords: Particle size; Thermal dispersion; Pore-scale heterogeneity; Transition regime; Sandbox experiment

 

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2022R1A2C1006696). This work was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIT) (No. 2022R1A5A1085103). This work was also supported by the Nuclear Research and Development Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021M2E1A1085200).