In this work, we investigate the influence of channel structure and fluid rheology on non-inertial migration of non-Brownian polystyrene beads. Particle migration in this regime can be found in biomedical, chemical, environmental and geological applications. However, the effect of fluid rheology on particle migration in porous media remains to be clearly understood. Here, we isolate the effects of elasticity and shear thinning by comparing a Newtonian fluid, a purely elastic (Boger) fluid, and a shear-thinning elastic fluid. To mimic the complexity of geometries in real-world application, a random porous structure is created through a disordered arrangement of cylindrical pillars in the microchannel. Experiments are repeated in an empty channel and in channels with an ordered arrangement of pillars, and the similarities and differences in the observed particle focusing are analyzed. It is found that elasticity drives the particles away from the channel walls in an empty microchannel. Notably, particle focusing is unaffected by curved streamlines in an ordered porous microchannel and particles stay away from pillars in elastic fluids. Shear-thinning is found to reduce the effect of focusing and a broader region of particle concentration is observed. It is also noteworthy that the rheological characteristics of the fluid are not important for the particle distribution in a randomly arranged pillared microchannel and particles have a uniform distribution for all suspending fluids. Moreover, discussion on the current discrepancy in the literature about the equilibrium positions of the particles in a channel is extended by analyzing the results obtained in the current experiments.

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Hypothesis Multiphase flow through porous media is important in a number of industrial, natural and biological processes. One application is enhanced oil recovery (EOR), where a resident oil phase is displaced by a Newtonian or polymeric fluid. In EOR, the two-phase immiscible displacement through heterogonous porous media is usually governed by competing viscous and capillary forces, expressed through a Capillary number Ca, and viscosity ratio of the displacing and displaced fluid. However, when viscoelastic displacement fluids are used, elastic forces in the displacement fluid also become significant. It is hypothesized that elastic instabilities are responsible for enhanced oil recovery through an elastic microsweep mechanism. Experiments In this work, we use a simplified geometry in the form of a pillared microchannel. We analyze the trapped residual oil size distribution after displacement by a Newtonian fluid, a nearly inelastic shear thinning fluid, and viscoelastic polymers and surfactant solutions. Findings We find that viscoelastic polymers and surfactant solutions can displace more oil compared to Newtonian fluids and nearly inelastic shear thinning polymers at similar Ca numbers. Beyond a critical Ca number, the size of residual oil blobs decreases significantly for viscoelastic fluids. This critical Ca number directly corresponds to flow rates where elastic instabilities occur in single phase flow, suggesting a close link between enhancement of oil recovery and appearance of elastic instabilities.

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We compare the flow behavior of viscoelastic surfactant (VES) solutions and Newtonian fluids through two different model porous media having similar permeability: (a) a 3D random packed bed and (b) a microchannel with a periodically spaced pillars. The former provides much larger flow resistance at the same apparent shear rate compared to the latter. The flow profile in the 3D packed bed cannot be observed since it is a closed system. However, visualization of the flow profile in the microchannel shows strong spatial and temporal flow instabilities in VES fluids appear above a critical shear rate. The onset of such elastic instabilities correlates to the flow rate where increased flow resistance is observed. The elastic instabilities are attributed to the formation of transient shear induced structures. The experiments provide a detailed insight into the complex interplay between the pore scale geometry and rheology of VES in the creeping flow regime.@en

We investigate the flow of unsteadfy three-dimensional viscoelastic fluid through an array of symmetric and asymmetric sets of cylinders constituting a model porous medium. The simulations are performed using a finite-volume methodology with a staggered grid. The solid-fluid interfaces of the porous structure are modeled using a second-order immersed boundary method [S. De et al., J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 232, 67 (2016)]. A finitely extensible nonlinear elastic constitutive model with Peterlin closure is used to model the viscoelastic part. By means of periodic boundary conditions, we model the flow behavior for a Newtonian as well as a viscoelastic fluid through successive contractions and expansions. We observe the presence of counterrotating vortices in the dead ends of our geometry. The simulations provide detailed insight into how flow structure, viscoelastic stresses, and viscoelastic work change with increasing Deborah number De. We observe completely different flow structures and different distributions of the viscoelastic work at high De in the symmetric and asymmetric configurations, even though they have the exact same porosity. Moreover, we find that even for the symmetric contraction-expansion flow, most energy dissipation is occurring in shear-dominated regions of the flow domain, not in extensional-flow-dominated regions.@en

We investigate creeping flow of a viscoelastic fluid through a three dimensional random porous medium using computational fluid dynamics. The simulations are performed using a finite volume methodology with a staggered grid. The no slip boundary condition on the fluid-solid interface is implemented using a second order finite volume immersed boundary (FVM-IBM) methodology [1]. The viscoelastic fluid is modeled using a FENE-P type model. The simulations reveal a transition from a laminar regime to a nonstationary regime with increasing viscoelasticity. We find an increased flow resistance with increase in Deborah number even though shear rheology is shear thinning nature of the fluid. By choosing a length scale based on the permeability of the porous media, a Deborah number can be defined, such that a universal curve for the flow transition is obtained. A study of the flow topology shows how in such disordered porous media shear, extensional and rotational contributions to the flow evolve with increased viscoelasticity. We correlate the flow topology with the dissipation function distribution across the porous domain, and find that most of the mechanical energy is dissipated in shear dominated regimes instead, even at high viscoelasticity.@en

It is known that viscoelastic fluids exhibit elastic instabilities in simple shear flow and flow with curved streamlines. During flow through a straight microchannel with pillars, we found strikingly strong hydrodynamic instabilities characterized by very large transversal excursions, even leading to a complete change in lanes, and the presence of fast and slowmoving lanes. Particle image velocimetry measurements through a pillared microchannel provide experimental evidence of these instabilities at a very low Reynolds number (< 0.01). The instability is characterized by a rapid increase in spatial and temporal fluctuations of velocity components and pressure at a critical Deborah number. We characterize under which conditions these strong instabilities arise.

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We investigate creeping flow of a viscoelastic fluid through a three dimensional random porous medium using computational fluid dynamics. The simulations are performed using a finite volume methodology with a staggered grid. The no slip boundary condition on the fluid-solid interface is implemented using a second order finite volume immersed boundary (FVMIBM) methodology [1]. The viscoelastic fluid is modelled using a FENE-P type constitutive relation. The simulations reveal a transition of flow structure from a laminar Newtonian regime to a nonstationary non-Newtonian regime with increasing viscoelasticity. We find that the flow profiles are mainly governed by the porous microstructure. By choosing a proper length scale a universal curve for the flow transition can be obtained. A study of the flow topology shows how in such disordered porous media shear, extensional and rotational contributions to the flow evolve with increased viscoelasticity.@en

We report on simulations of an unsteady three dimensional viscoelastic fluid flow through a model porous medium, employing a finite volume methodology (FVM) with a staggered grid. Boundary conditions at the walls of the porous structures are imposed using a second order immersed boundary method (IBM), allowing for accurate simulations using a relatively coarse grid. We compare the viscoelastic stresses obtained using this new IBM technique with those published in literature and find good correspondence. Next, we applied this methodology to model viscoelastic fluids with a FENE-P constitutive model flowing through closely spaced cylinders. Using periodic boundary conditions, we modeled the flow behavior for Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids for successive contractions and expansions. We observe the presence of counter-rotating vortices in between the closely spaced cylinders. The viscoelastic flow structure is symmetric for lower Deborah (De) number, but onset of an asymmetry occurs after a critical De for an infinite array of cylinders. In the presence of side walls, we observe that the onset of flow asymmetry happens at a much lower De, which can be related to higher viscoelastic stresses normal to the flow direction and larger extensional viscosities which affect the curved streamlines. The three-dimensional flow characteristics for viscoelastic flow at higher De number are quite different in comparison with Newtonian flow behavior.

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