Numerical Simulations of Reactive Flow Displacements in Porous Media

The viscous fingering of miscible flow displacements in a homogeneous porous media is examined in the case involving non-autocatalytic chemical reactions between the fluids. The problem is formulated using continuity equation, Darcy's law, and volume-averaged forms of convection-diffusion-reaction equation for mass balance. Full nonlinear simulations using a pseudo-spectral method, allowed to analyze the mechanisms of fingering instability that result from the dependence of the fluids viscosities on the concentrations of the different species. In particular, the stud examined the effects of varying important parameters namely the Damkohler number that represents the ratio of the hydrodynamic and chemical characteristic time scales, and the Peclet number that accounts for the inertial versus diffusive effects.