Looping Network Meetings

#67 April 14, 2025

Monday 15:00 (Paris/Warsaw time)

Rishabh P. Sharma (University of Warsaw)

Influence of rock structure on the morphology of wormhole network

Abstract:
Dissolution is a highly non-linear process in which the interplay of flow, transport, and reaction leads to the emergence of reaction-infiltration instabilities. In dissolving rocks at certain flow conditions, these instabilities give rise to the formation of a network of competing channels known as dissolution channels or wormholes. The wormholes compete for the available flow, with the winning wormhole attracting a larger flow and solute concentration, screening the rest of the network and forming a highly permeable conduit through the rock. In this study, we investigate how the rock structure, such as packed layers of low porosity, can influence the shape of evolving dissolution channels. We analyze the shape of experimentally formed wormhole networks in two different types of limestone using geometric measures that account for tortuosity and branching. These measures indicate that wormholes formed perpendicular to the packed layers are more tortuous and contain more branches compared to those formed along the packed layer in higher porosity regions. We verify these observations by analyzing the pore architecture of the respective samples, obtained from microtomography scans.

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