Research Projects

Flow of non-Newtonian fluid through porous media constitutes some of the fundamental problems of thermo-fluid dynamics. Besides being theoretically important, such flows serves wide range of practical applications including biofluid mechanics, enhanced oil recovery, and liquid pollutant removal. Non-Newtonian fluids occur in diverse natural and synthetic forms showing a variety of complex, and often time-dependent, stress-strain behavior. For solving non-Newtonian fluid flow in porous media, usually two different approaches are used: continuum models, pore-scale models. While continuum models solve governing equations averaged over appropriate representative elementary volume, pore-scale models solve transport equations of fluid in pore-space. For pore-scale simulations, the pore-scale geometry is obtained from (a) micro-scale images of actual porous media, or (b) numerically generated synthetic porous structure. Synthtic propous media are usually formed by (a) periodic arrays of cylinders/capillaries, or (b) applying stochastic reconstruction algorithms. While continuum models, involving averaged equations, are easier to solve, developing appropriate averaged equations of non-Newtonian flows are rarely possible. Thus, simulation of non-Newtonian flow through porous media usually relies upon various pore-scale methodologies. Present proposal wish to develop approximate continuum models of non-Newtonian flow through porous media using pore-scale simulations and experiments. Within the large variety of non-Newtonian rheologies, the proposed work will investigate the shear-thinning and viscoelastic models, which are important in biological systems and in enhanced oil recovery.