Impact of pore characteristics on displacement processes of air and water flow: Modelling and experimental investigation
2022
Chen, K.P. | Wei, Y.B. | Wu, J.C.
Air-water two-phase flow is a common phenomenon during irrigation or intense rainfall in soils. The competition between air and water phases has been recognized for long, but few attempts have been made to study the effect of pore size distribution on the air–water displacement processes at pore scale. In this study, micro-computed tomography experiments and pore network simulations are employed to study air–water flow in the pore space. Experimental and simulated results show that as the water saturation changes, the diameters of water-occupied pores change more quickly than air-occupied pores, while the connectivity of air clusters is more fragile than water clusters. Compared with single-phase conditions, air–water two-phase flow is more sensitive to pore network connectivity. It can also be found that, due to the decreasing diameter of water-occupied pores and decreasing connectivity of air clusters, the air–water flow rate decreases as the pore size distribution becomes skewed.
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