A model for non-isothermal flow and mineral precipitation and dissolution in a thin strip

Motivated by porosity changes due to chemical reactions caused by injection of cold water in a geothermal reservoir, we propose a two-dimensional pore scale model of a thin strip. The pore scale model includes fluid flow, heat transport and reactive transport where changes in aperture is taken into account. The thin strip consists of void space and grains, where ions are transported in the fluid in the void space. At the interface between void and grain, ions are allowed to precipitate and become part of the grain, or conversely, minerals in the grain can dissolve and become part of the fluid flow, and we honor the possible change in aperture these two processes cause. We include temperature dependence and possible effects of the temperature in both fluid properties and in the mineral precipitation and dissolution reactions. For the pore scale model equations, we investigate the limit as the width of the thin strip approaches zero, deriving upscaled one-dimensional effective equations. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.