Fractal Analysis on the Mapping Relationship of Conductivity Properties in Porous Material

Abstract

The mapping relationships between the conductivity properties are not only of great importance for understanding the transport phenomenon in porous material, but also benefit the prediction of transport parameters. Therefore, a fractal pore-scale model with capillary bundle is applied to study the fluid flow and heat conduction as well as gas diffusion through saturated porous material, and calculate the conductivity properties including effective permeability, thermal conductivity and diffusion coefficient. The results clearly show that the correlations between the conductivity properties of saturated porous material are prominent and depend on the way the pore structure changes. By comparing with available experimental results and 2D numerical simulation on Sierpinski carpet models, the proposed mapping relationships among transport properties are validated. The present mapping method provides a new window for understanding the transport processes through porous material, and sheds light on oil and gas resources, energy storage, carbon dioxide sequestration and storage as well as fuel cell etc.

Keywords

• porous material
• fractal geometry
• permeability
• thermal conductivity
• diffusivity
• mapping relationship