A physically-based analytical model to describe effective excess charge for streaming potential generation in water saturated porous media

Abstract

Among the different contributions generating self-potential, the streaming potential is of particular interest in hydrogeology for its sensitivity to water flow. Estimating water flux in porous media using streaming potential data relies on our capacity to understand, model, and upscale the electrokinetic coupling at the mineral-solution interface. Different approaches have been proposed to predict streaming potential generation in porous media. One of these approaches is the flux averaging which is based on determining the excess charge which is effectively dragged in the medium by water flow. In this study, we develop a physically-based analytical model to predict the effective excess charge in saturated porous media using a flux-averaging approach in a bundle of capillary tubes with a fractal pore-size distribution. The proposed model allows the determination of the effective excess charge as a function of pore water ionic concentration and hydrogeological parameters like porosity, permeability and tortuosity. The new model has been successfully tested against different set of experimental data from the literature. One of the main findings of this study is the mechanistic explanation to the empirical dependence between the effective excess charge and the permeability that has been found by several researchers. The proposed model also highlights the link to other lithological properties and it is able to reproduce the evolution of effective excess charge with electrolyte concentrations.