Grain Scale Modeling of Arbitrary Fluid Saturation in Random Packings

Abstract

We propose a model for increasing liquid saturation in a granular packing which can account for liquid redistribution at saturation levels beyond the well-studied capillary bridge regime. The model is capable of resolving and combining capillary bridges, menisci and fully saturated pores to form local liquid clusters of any shape. They can exchange volume due to the local Laplace pressure gradient via a liquid film on the surfaces of grains. Local instabilities like Haines jumps trigger the discontinuous evolution of the liquid front. The applicability of the model is demonstrated and compared to benchmark experiments on the level of individual liquid structures as well as on larger systems.

arXiv comment11 pages, 11 figures and 1 table

References in corpus (6)

• Wet Granular Materials
• Shear strength properties of wet granular materials
• On the capillary stress tensor in wet granular materials
• Fluid depletion in shear bands
• Superfast non-linear diffusion: Capillary transport in particulate porous media
• The Role of Contact Angle Hysteresis for Fluid Transport in Wet Granular Matter

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• Effect of geometry on the dewetting of granular chains by evaporation
• A Hybrid multiphase model based on lattice Boltzmann method direct simulations
• Capillary transport in low saturated sands: superfast non-linear diffusion model versus direct experimental observations
• Percolation study for the capillary ascent of a liquid through a granular soil