Capillary equilibrium of bubbles in porous media.

ABSTRACT: In geologic, biologic, and engineering porous media, bubbles (or droplets, ganglia) emerge in the aftermath of flow, phase change, or chemical reactions, where capillary equilibrium of bubbles significantly impacts the hydraulic, transport, and reactive processes. There has previously been great progress in general understanding of capillarity in porous media, but specific investigation into bubbles is lacking. Here, we propose a conceptual model of a bubble's capillary equilibrium associated with free energy inside a porous medium. We quantify the multistability and hysteretic behaviors of a bubble induced by multiple state variables and study the impacts of pore geometry and wettability. Surprisingly, our model provides a compact explanation of counterintuitive observations that bubble p

SUBMITTER: Wang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8092930 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature