Electrical Signatures of Diffusion-Limited Mixing: Insights from a Milli-fluidic Tracer Experiment
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_80C5597FAFA6
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Electrical Signatures of Diffusion-Limited Mixing: Insights from a Milli-fluidic Tracer Experiment
Journal
Transport in Porous Media
ISSN
0169-3913
1573-1634
1573-1634
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
146
Pages
436-461
Language
english
Abstract
We investigate how diffusion-limited mixing of a layered solute concentration distribution within a porous medium impacts bulk electrical conductivity. To do so, we perform a milli-fluidic tracer test by injecting a fluorescent and electrically conductive tracer in a quasi two-dimensional (2D) water-saturated porous medium. High resolution optical- and geoelectrical monitoring of the tracer is achieved by using a fluorimetry technique and equipping the flow cell with a resistivity meter, respectively. We find that optical and geoelectrical outputs can be related by a temporal re-scaling that accounts for the different diffusion rates of the optical and electrical tracers. Mixing-driven perturbations of the electrical equipotential field lines cause apparent electrical conductivity time-series, measured perpendicularly to the layering, to peak at times that are in agreement with the diffusion transport time-scale associated with the layer width. Numerical simulations highlight high sensitivity of such electrical data to the layers’ degree of mixing and their distance to the injection electrodes. Furthermore, the electrical data correlate well with time-series of two commonly used solute mixing descriptors: the concentration variance and the scalar dissipation rate.
Keywords
Upscaled electrical conductivity, Diffusion-limited mixing, Hydrogeophysics, Milli-fluidic experiment
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / Projects / 184574
Swiss National Science Foundation / Projects / 172587
European Commission / H2020 / 722028
Create date
01/06/2021 8:18
Last modification date
13/07/2024 6:09