| Summary: | Particle transport with fluid flow in porous media is one of important problems in various engineering fields. The migration and sedimentation of micro particles through porous media affect strongly the hydraulic characteristics. The grout injection is performed to reduce the permeability of rock in civil engineering. In resource engineering, the decline of oil production might be due to the blockage of pore space caused by the asphaltene deposition in oil reservoir. Also, the transport of micro particles with water and gas flow could cause the production decrease in methane hydrate development.This paper presents the simulation study of particle transport in porous media to understand the migration and sedimentation process of micro particles. In this study, we use a numerical simulation method based on the micromechanical fluid-particle system that couples the lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) and the distinct element method (DEM) . LBM is known to be a suitable technique for simulating fluid flow in complex and time-varying geometries with boundaries. On the other hand, DEM has attracted much attention among many researchers as a useful simulation technique for large deformation problems. With the coupling of both methods, the complex motion of micro particles with fluid flow in porous media can be simulated.To estimate the effect of particle concentration in the hydraulic characteristics such as permeability, we attempted to simulate the migration behavior of micro particles through porous media using this hybrid simulation method. As a result, it confirmed numerically that the migration and sedimentation of micro particles through porous media cause the decline of permeability. Also, it is cleared that particle concentration has a large impact on it.
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