Fabien Bellet

Bio: Fabien Bellet is an academic researcher from Centre national de la recherche scientifique. The author has contributed to research in topics: Tensor & Reynolds number. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 32 citations.

Macroscopic model for unsteady flow in porous media

Abstract: The present article reports on a formal derivation of a macroscopic model for unsteady one-phase incompressible flow in rigid and periodic porous media using an upscaling technique. The derivation is carried out in the time domain in the general situation where inertia may have a significant impact. The resulting model is non-local in time and involves two effective coefficients in the macroscopic filtration law, namely a dynamic apparent permeability tensor, H t , and a vector, α, accounting for the time-decaying influence of the flow initial condition. This model generalizes previous non-local macroscale models restricted to creeping flow conditions. Ancillary closure problems are provided, which allow computing the effective coefficients. Symmetry and positiveness analyses of H t are carried out, evidencing that this tensor is symmetric only in the creeping regime. The effective coefficients are functions of time, geometry, macroscopic forcings and the initial flow condition. This is illustrated through numerical solutions of the closure problems. Predictions are made on a simple periodic structure for a wide range of Reynolds numbers smaller than the critical value characterizing the first Hopf bifurcation. Finally, the performance of the macroscopic model for a variety of macroscopic forcing and initial conditions is examined in several case studies. Validation through comparisons with direct numerical simulations is performed. It is shown that the purely heuristic classical model, widely used for unsteady flow, consisting in a Darcy-like model complemented with an accumulation term on the filtration velocity, is inappropriate.

Flow over natural or engineered surfaces: an adjoint homogenization perspective

Abstract: Natural and engineered surfaces are never smooth, but irregular, rough at different scales, compliant, possibly porous, liquid impregnated or superhydrophobic. The correct numerical modelling of fluid flowing through and around them is important but poses problems. For media characterized by a periodic or quasi-periodic microstructure of characteristic dimensions smaller than the relevant scales of the flow, multiscale homogenization can be used to study the effect of the surface, avoiding the numerical resolution of small details. Here, we revisit the homogenization strategy using adjoint variables to model the interaction between a fluid in motion and regularly micro-textured, permeable or impermeable walls. The approach described allows for the easy derivation of auxiliary/adjoint systems of equations which, after averaging, yield macroscopic tensorial properties, such as permeability, elasticity, slip, transpiration, etc. When the fluid in the neighbourhood of the microstructure is in the Stokes regime, classical results are recovered. Adjoint homogenization, however, permits simple extension of the analysis to the case in which the flow displays nonlinear effects. Then, the properties extracted from the auxiliary systems take the name of effective properties and do not depend only on the geometrical details of the medium, but also on the microscopic characteristics of the fluid motion. Examples are shown to demonstrate the usefulness of adjoint homogenization to extract effective tensor properties without the need for ad hoc parameters. In particular, notable results reported herein include:(i) an original formulation to describe filtration in porous media in the presence of inertial effects;(ii) the microscopic and macroscopic equations needed to characterize flows through poroelastic media;(iii) an extended Navier’s condition to be employed at the boundary between a fluid and an impermeable rough wall, with roughness elements which can be either rigid or linearly elastic;(iv) the microscopic problems needed to define the relevant parameters for a Saffman-like condition at the interface between a fluid and a porous substrate; and(v) the macroscopic equations which hold at the dividing surface between a free-fluid region and a fluid-saturated poroelastic domain.

Symmetry properties of macroscopic transport coefficients in porous media

Abstract: We report on symmetry properties of tensorial effective transport coefficients characteristic of many transport phenomena in porous systems at the macroscopic scale. The effective coefficients in the macroscopic models (derived by upscaling (volume averaging) the governing equations at the underlying scale) are obtained from the solution of closure problems that allow passing the information from the lower to the upper scale. The symmetry properties of the macroscopic coefficients are identified from a formal analysis of the closure problems and this is illustrated for several different physical mechanisms, namely, one-phase flow in homogeneous porous media involving inertial effects, slip flow in the creeping regime, momentum transport in a fracture relying on the Reynolds model including slip effects, single-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media embedding a porous matrix and a clear fluid region, two-phase momentum transport in homogeneous porous media, as well as dispersive heat and mass transport. ...

Origin of the inertial deviation from Darcy's law: An investigation from a microscopic flow analysis on two-dimensional model structures

Abstract: Inertial flow in porous media occurs in many situations of practical relevance among which one can cite flows in column reactors, in filters, in aquifers, or near wells for hydrocarbon recovery. It is characterized by a deviation from Darcy's law that leads to a nonlinear relationship between the pressure drop and the filtration velocity. In this work, this deviation, also known as the nonlinear, inertial, correction to Darcy's law, which is subject to controversy upon its origin and dependence on the filtration velocity, is studied through numerical simulations. First, the microscopic flow problem was solved computationally for a wide range of Reynolds numbers up to the limit of steady flow within ordered and disordered porous structures. In a second step, the macroscopic characteristics of the porous medium and flow (permeability and inertial correction tensors) that appear in the macroscale model were computed. From these results, different flow regimes were identified: (1) the weak inertia regime where the inertial correction has a cubic dependence on the filtration velocity and (2) the strong inertia (Forchheimer) regime where the inertial correction depends on the square of the filtration velocity. However, the existence and origin of those regimes, which depend also on the microstructure and flow orientation, are still not well understood in terms of their physical interpretations, as many causes have been conjectured in the literature. In the present study, we provide an in-depth analysis of the flow structure to identify the origin of the deviation from Darcy's law. For accuracy and clarity purposes, this is carried out on two-dimensional structures. Unlike the previous studies reported in the literature, where the origin of inertial effects is often identified on a heuristic basis, a theoretical justification is presented in this work. Indeed, a decomposition of the convective inertial term into two components is carried out formally allowing the identification of a correlation between the flow structure and the different inertial regimes. These components correspond to the curvature of the flow streamlines weighted by the local fluid kinetic energy on the one hand and the distribution of the kinetic energy along these lines on the other hand. In addition, the role of the recirculation zones in the occurrence and in the form of the deviation from Darcy's law was thoroughly analyzed. For the porous structures under consideration, it is shown that (1) the kinetic energy lost in the vortices is insignificant even at high filtration velocities and (2) the shape of the flow streamlines induced by the recirculation zones plays an important role in the variation of the flow structure, which is correlated itself to the different flow regimes.