PNNL

Abstract

Abstract—Simulation of unsaturated free-surface flow in fractured geological media represents a challenge due to the highly heterogeneous flow field induced by extensive faults, joints and fissures. Free-surface flow in unsaturated media leads to highly intermittent flow regimes and flow velocities well above those assumed for the bulk volume. However, common modeling approaches relying on volume-averaged effective equations fail to capture this flow feature. In this work we present micro-scale flow simulations using a three-dimensional multiphase SPH code. Pairwise fluid-fluid and solid-fluid interaction forces are used to simulate a wide range of wetting conditions encountered on rock surfaces. It is shown that static contact angles for sessiles droplets are independent of the model discretization, i.e. the total amount of particles. Thus, computation times can be reduced without sacrificing qualitative or quantitative information. Furthermore we show that our model is in accordance with general scaling laws for droplet flow.