The Ganglion Network Model: Evolving Trapped Phases in Porous Media

Abstract

Partially miscible ganglia trapped within porous media, spanning one or multiple pores and evolving through diffusive mass transfer, are common in subsurface (e.g., CO$_2$ and H$_2$ storage) and manufacturing (e.g., fuel cells) applications. We present the ganglion network model (GNM), a reduced-order method for simulating how a population of such ganglia evolves inside an arbitrary porous microstructure. GNM operates on a tree graph, the ganglion network, extracted from the pore-scale image of a given sample. Each point on the graph encodes a possible ganglion configuration in the void space, without any loss of geometric or topological complexity. The evolution of a population is modeled by representing each ganglion as a particle on the graph and tracking it according to a set of rules formulated herein. The rules capture capillary events such as pore invasion, retraction, snap-off, fragmentation, and merger. Unlike pore-network models, another graph-based modeling tool at the pore scale, GNM solves no system of equations and its cost scales with ganglion count, not domain size. We validate GNM against an image-based pore-network model in 2.5D and 3D domains with populations undergoing ripening, dissolution, and growth. We find good agreement in ganglion statistics, aggregate properties, and spatial configuration. We further argue that the ganglion network is the statistical space needed for extending kinetic theories of Ostwald ripening from single- to multi-pore ganglia, and provide an outline for how to do this. GNM opens the door to modeling other dynamics of trapped phases in porous media.