The influence of the geometry of idealised porous media on the simulated flow velocity: A multifractal description

• Published in: Geoderma 2009-04, Vol.150 (1), p.196-201
• Main Authors: Jiménez-Hornero, Francisco J., Gutiérrez de Ravé, E., Giráldez, Juan V., Laguna, Ana M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Flow; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Lattice BGK model; Multifractals; Porous media; Soils; Surficial geology; Tortuosity
• ISSN: 0016-7061; 1872-6259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2009.02.006

Soil geometry is complex, often multiscale, and flow models should better account for it. Previous works have shown that the flow velocity distribution simulated in idealised porous media with similar geometries exhibits a multifractal type of scaling. The aim of this work is to describe the influence of the porous media geometry on the flow velocity distributions by using multifractal analysis. The fluid velocity is simulated with a lattice model in two idealised 2D porous media with ordered and disordered geometry. The results obtained from the study of the mass exponent functions and the multifractal and Rényi spectra show that, in addition to the porosity, tortuosity is a main factor that has to be taken into account when analysing the flow velocity simulated for geometrically different porous media. The findings reported in this work show the information that can be obtained from a multifractal analysis in the description of the soil geometry effects on the flow velocity field.