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Environmental Sciences
Seminar Abstract
Newly
Derived Equations for Gas Flow in Porous Media Concern about the fate of gas-phase chemical contaminants in soil systems stems from many possible contaminant
scenarios including spills and improper
disposal of industrial solvents and gasoline, intentional application of agricultural chemicals, as well as the
natural occurrence of compounds such as
radon. Numerical modeling coupled with laboratory experiments has demonstrated that traditional gas
transport equations do not adequately
describe gas flow in porous media. Micro-scale coupled equations for mass and momentum conservation for gas-phase
transport in porous media were derived by
utilizing the method of volume averaging. The expressions for both the advective velocity and the
mass transport contain new terms which
may be important for flow regimes of environmental significance. New terms in the velocity
expression arise from the inclusion of a
slip velocity boundary condition and micro-scale coupling to the mass equation. A new term in the mass
conservation equation, due to the
coupling at the micro-scale, acts in opposition to traditional advective transport.Comparisons made between
output from numerical models and
experimental data indicate that the new “slip coupling” term in the mass conservation expression is
important in accurately modeling gas
transport in varied advective/diffusive flow regimes.
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