Multiphase flow in homogeneous porous media with phase change. Part I: Numerical modeling

A model for the description of multicomponent and multiphase flows with phase change in porous media is presented. This type of flow occurs in steam injection operations for an effective heating of porous media or the extraction of fluid phases from porous structures. These processes are common applications in the field of chemical engineering. The heat exchange between solid and fluid phases is, in contrast to traditional steam injection processes as the tertiary oil recovery or the remediation of soils, the dominant mechanism for these technical applications. Furthermore, high spatial and transient temperature gradients appear and complicate the modeling of the heat transfer. This results in special requirements for the generalized modeling of these processes and is analyzed at first. Then a thorough presentation of the modeling and the numerical implementation is given. Finally, numerical results are presented and a short validation with own experimental data is done.