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A compact finite difference scheme has been developed for modeling convection in a porous medium saturated with a fluid. We consider the problem for a rectangular domain with anisotropic permeability and thermal conductivity properties in terms of stream function and temperature deviation, taking into account Darcy's law. Boundary conditions of impenetrability and a linear distribution of temperature are set. This model is cosymmetric when certain conditions are imposed on the permeability and thermal conductivities. One parametric family of stationary convection regimes arises when mechanical equilibrium loses stability. A numerical method with a fourth-order finite difference approximation for spatial variables and a Runge – Kutta integrator for time has been developed. It has been proved that this scheme preserves cosymmetry. Numerical results for evaluating the critical Rayleigh number have been presented. We compare them with results obtained using a second-order finite-difference method. We show that critical Rayleigh numbers are repeated twice with very high accuracy, which proves cosymmetry preservation. Numerical evaluation of convective regimes and spectral properties are presented. The efficiency of the developed compact finite difference scheme on a nine-point stencil is assessed.

This article represents numerical simulation technique for determining effective spectral electromagnetic properties (effective electrical conductivity and relative dielectric permittivity) of saturated porous media. Information about these properties is vastly applied during the interpretation of petrophysical exploration data of boreholes and studying of rock core samples. The main feature of the present paper consists in the fact, that it involves three-dimensional saturated digital rock models, which were constructed based on the combined data considering microscopic structure of the porous media and the information about capillary equilibrium of oil-water mixture in pores. Data considering microscopic structure of the model are obtained by means of X-ray microscopic tomography. Information about distributions of saturating fluids is based on hydrodynamic simulations with density functional technique. In order to determine electromagnetic properties of the numerical model time-domain Fourier transform of Maxwell equations is considered. In low frequency approximation the problem can be reduced to solving elliptic equation for the distribution of complex electric potential. Finite difference approximation is based on discretization of the model with homogeneous isotropic orthogonal grid. This discretization implies that each computational cell contains exclusively one medium: water, oil or rock. In order to obtain suitable numerical model the distributions of saturating components is segmented. Such kind of modification enables avoiding usage of heterogeneous grids and disregards influence on the results of simulations of the additional techniques, required in order to determine properties of cells, filled with mixture of media. Corresponding system of differential equations is solved by means of biconjugate gradient stabilized method with multigrid preconditioner. Based on the results of complex electric potential computations average values of electrical conductivity and relative dielectric permittivity is calculated. For the sake of simplicity, this paper considers exclusively simulations with no spectral dependence of conductivities and permittivities of model components. The results of numerical simulations of spectral dependence of effective characteristics of heterogeneously saturated porous media (electrical conductivity and relative dielectric permittivity) in broad range of frequencies and multiple water saturations are represented in figures and table. Efficiency of the presented approach for determining spectral electrical properties of saturated rocks is discussed in conclusion.

This study investigates the influence of a time-periodic (modulation) magnetic field upon the development of ferroconvection in a densely packed medium saturated with couple stress ferromagnetic fluid. The Darcy model is used to describe the flow in porous medium. The research is important from practical and theoretical point of view. A time-periodic magnetic field is essential in circumscribing channels where the effect of gravity is less or nonexistent to generate circulation. There are numerous engineering uses for this in the manufacturing of magnetic field sensors, charged particle electrode materials, modulators, magnetic resonators, and optical devices. The resulting physical eigenvalue problem is dealt with by using isothermal boundary conditions and the regular perturbation technique with a small time-periodic amplitude. The onset criteria were defined on the supposition that the exchange of stability principle holds. The shift in the thermal Rayleigh number is dependent on the associated parameters: magnetic parameter, Vadasz number, couple stress parameter, porosity, and frequency of the time-periodic function. The results in this case indicate that the onset of ferroconvection can be enhanced or reduced by appropriate changes in the governing parameters.

We study an appearance of gravitational convection in a porous medium saturated by the double-diffusive fluid. The rectangle heated from below is considered with anisotropy of media properties. We analyze Darcy – Boussinesq equations for a binary fluid with Soret effect.

Resulting system for the stream function, the deviation of temperature and concentration is cosymmetric under some additional conditions for the parameters of the problem. It means that the quiescent state (mechanical equilibrium) loses its stability and a continuous family of stationary regimes branches off. We derive explicit formulas for the critical values of the Rayleigh numbers both for temperature and concentration under these conditions of the cosymmetry. It allows to analyze monotonic instability of mechanical equilibrium, the results of corresponding computations are presented.

A finite-difference discretization of a second-order accuracy is developed with preserving of the cosymmetry of the underlying system. The derived numerical scheme is applied to analyze the stability of mechanical equilibrium.

The appearance of stationary and nonstationary convective regimes is studied. The neutral stability curves for the mechanical equilibrium are presented. The map for the plane of the Rayleigh numbers (temperature and concentration) are displayed. The impact of the parameters of thermal diffusion on the Rayleigh concentration number is established, at which the oscillating instability precedes the monotonic instability. In the general situation, when the conditions of cosymmetry are not satisfied, the derived formulas of the critical Rayleigh numbers can be used to estimate the thresholds for the convection onset.

We present an inhomogeneous two-dimensional network model of two-phase flow in porous media. The edges of the network are assumed to be capillary tubes of different radii. We propose a new algorithm for handling phase fluxes at the nodes of this network model. We perform two test problems and show that the two-phase flow in this inhomogeneous network model demonstrates properties that are analogous to those of real porous media: capillary imbibition, dependence of capillary pressure on saturation and effect of capillary forces in two-phase displacement. The two test problems are: the counter-current imbibition and the twophase displacement in a periodically inhomogeneous porous medium. In the former problem, we implement a network consisting of two regions: a region of low-permeability with thin capillaries surrounded by a region of high-permeability with thick capillaries, initially saturated with wetting and nonwetting incompressible fluids, respectively. Capillary equilibrium is established due to counter-current imbibition by a region. We examine the dependence: of saturation of the wetting fluid with respect to time in the regions, and of capillary pressure on the current saturation. We have obtained a qualitative agreement with the known experimental and theoretical results, which will further allow us to use this network model to verify homogenized models of capillary nonequilibrium. In the latter problem, we consider the two-phase displacement, where the network is initially saturated with nonwetting fluid. Then wetting fluid is injected through a boundary at a constant rate. We analyze the saturation with respect to the axis which is along the applied pressure gradient for various moments in time with various values of coefficients of surface tension. The results show that for lower values of coefficient of surface tension, the wetting fluid prefers to invade through the thicker tubes, and in the case of higher values, through thinner tubes.

New numerical simulation technique to calculate electrical properties of rocks with two-phase “oil– water” saturation is proposed. This technique takes into account surface conductivity of electrical double layers at the contact between solid rock and aqueous solution inside pore space. The numerical simulation technique is based on acquiring of electrical potential distribution in high-resolution three-dimensional digital model of porous medium. The digital model incorporates the spatial geometry of pore channels and contains bulk and surface grid cells. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the importance of surface conductivity effects.