A comprehensive Darcy-type law for viscoplastic fluids: I. Framework

TL;DR

This paper develops a unified Darcy-type law for viscoplastic fluids in porous media, covering all flow regimes from yield stress onset to Newtonian flow, validated through extensive computational data.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive Darcy-type law that unifies different flow regimes of viscoplastic fluids based on Bingham number, validated by pore-scale simulations.

Findings

Validated the universal critical pressure gradient scale for yield onset.

Proposed a Darcy-type law applicable across all Bingham numbers.

Confirmed the law's accuracy with extensive computational data.

Abstract

A comprehensive Darcy-type law for viscoplastic fluids is proposed. Different regimes of yield-stress fluid flow in porous media can be categorised based on the Bingham number (i.e. the ratio of the yield stress to the characteristic viscous stress). In a recent study (Chaparian, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 980, A14, 2024), we addressed the yield/plastic limit (infinitely large Bingham number), namely, the onset of flow when the applied pressure gradient is just sufficient to overcome the yield stress resistance and initiate the flow. A purely geometrical universal scale was derived for the non-dimensional critical pressure gradient, which was thoroughly validated against computational data. In the present work, we investigate the Newtonian limit (infinitely large pressure difference compared to the yield stress of the fluid - ultra low Bingham number) both theoretically and computationally. We then propose a Darcy-type law applicable across the entire range of Bingham numbers by combining the mathematical models of the yield/plastic and Newtonian limits. Exhaustive computational data generated in this study (using augmented Lagrangian method coupled with anisotropic adaptive mesh at the pore scale) confirm the validity of the theoretical proposed law.