arXiv subjects

Alex Hansen

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Hansen.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Fatigue and failure of a polymer chain under tension

The rupture of a polymer chain maintained at temperature $T$ under fixed tension is prototypical to a wide array of systems failing under constant external strain and random perturbations. Past research focused on analytic and numerical studies of the mean rate of collapse of such a chain. Surprisingly, an analytic calculation of the probability distribution function (PDF) of collapse rates appears to be lacking. Since rare events of rapid collapse can be important and even catastrophic, we present here a theory of this distribution, with a stress on its tail of fast rates. We show that the tail of the PDF is a power law with a {\em universal} exponent that is theoretically determined. Extensive numerics validate the offered theory. Lessons pertaining to other problems of the same type are drawn.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Phase transitions and correlations in fracture processes where disorder and stress compete

We study the effect of the competition between disorder and stress enhancement in fracture processes using the local load sharing fiber bundle model, a model that hovers on the border between analytical tractability and numerical accessibility. We implement a disorder distribution with one adjustable parameter. The model undergoes a localization transition as a function of this parameter. We identify an order parameter for this transition and find that the system is in the localized phase over a finite range of values of the parameter bounded by a transition to the non-localized phase on both sides. The transition is first order at the lower transition and second order at the upper transition. The critical exponents characterizing the second order transition are close to those characterizing the percolation transition. We determine the spatiotemporal correlation function in the localized phase. It is characterized by two power laws as in invasion percolation. We find exponents that are consistent with the values found in that problem.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2020

Onsager-Symmetry Obeyed in Athermal Mesoscopic Systems: Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

We compute the fluid flow time-correlation functions of incompressible, immiscible two-phase flow in porous media using a 2D network model. Given a properly chosen representative elementary volume, the flow rate distributions are Gaussian and the integrals of time correlation functions of the flows are found to converge to a finite value. The integrated cross-correlations become symmetric, obeying Onsager's reciprocal relations. These findings support the proposal of a non-equilibrium thermodynamic description for two-phase flow in porous media.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Anomalous Diffusion in Systems with Concentration-Dependent Diffusivity

We show analytically that there is anomalous diffusion when the diffusion constant depends on the concentration as a power law with a positive exponent or a negative exponent with absolute value less than one and the initial condition is a delta function in the concentration. On the other hand, when the initial concentration profile is a step, the profile spreads as the square root of time. We verify our results numerically using particles moving stochastically.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2019

Flow-Area Relations in Immiscible Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

We present a theoretical framework for immiscible incompressible two-phase flow in homogeneous porous media that connects the distribution of local fluid velocities to the average seepage velocities. By dividing the pore area along a cross-section transversal to the average flow direction up into differential areas associated with the local flow velocities, we construct a distribution function that allows us not only to re-establish existing relationships between the seepage velocities of the immiscible fluids, but also to find new relations between their higher moments. We support and demonstrate the formalism through numerical simulations using a dynamic pore-network model for immiscible two-phase flow with two- and three-dimensional pore networks. Our numerical results are in agreement with the theoretical considerations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Pore network modeling of the effects of viscosity ratio and pressure gradient on steady-state incompressible two-phase flow in porous media

We perform more than 6000 steady-state simulations with a dynamic pore network model, corresponding to a large span in viscosity ratios and capillary numbers. From these simulations, dimensionless quantities such as relative permeabilities, residual saturations, mobility ratios and fractional flows are computed. Relative permeabilities and residual saturations show many of the same qualitative features observed in other experimental and modeling studies. However, while other studies find that relative permeabilities converge to straight lines at high capillary numbers we find that this is not the case when viscosity ratios are different from 1. Our conclusion is that departure from straight lines occurs when fluids mix rather than form decoupled flow channels. Another consequence of the mixing is that computed fractional flow curves, plotted against saturation, lie closer to the diagonal than they would otherwise do. At lower capillary numbers, fractional flow curves have a classical S-shape. Ratios of average mobility to their high-capillary number limit values are also considered. These vary, roughly, between 0 and 1, although values larger than 1 are also observed. For a given saturation and viscosity ratio, the mobilities are not always monotonically increasing with the pressure gradient. While increasing the pressure gradient mobilizes more fluid and activates more flow paths, when the mobilized fluid is more viscous, a reduction in average mobility may occur.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Can Local Stress Enhancement Induce Stability in Fracture Processes? Part II: The Shielding Effect

We use the local load sharing fiber bundle model to demonstrate a shielding effect where strong fibers protect weaker ones. This effect exists due to the local stress enhancement around broken fibers in the local load sharing model, and it is therefore not present in the equal load sharing model. The shielding effect is prominent only after the initial disorder-driven part of the fracture process has finished, and if the fiber bundle has not reached catastrophic failure by this point, then the shielding increases the critical damage of the system, compared to equal load sharing. In this sense, the local stress enhancement may make the fracture process more stable, but at the cost of reduced critical force.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2019

Effective rheology of two-phase flow in a capillary fiber bundle model

We investigate the effective rheology of two-phase flow in a bundle of parallel capillary tubes carrying two immiscible fluids under an external pressure drop. The diameter of each tube varies along its length and the corresponding capillary threshold pressures are considered to be distributed randomly according to a uniform probability distribution. We demonstrate through analytical calculations that a transition from a linear Darcy regime to a non-linear behavior occurs while decreasing the pressure drop $ΔP$, where the total flow rate $\langle Q \rangle$ varies with $ΔP$ with an exponent $2$. This exponent for the non-linear regime changes when a lower cut-off $P_m$ is introduced in the threshold distribution. We demonstrate analytically that, in the limit where $ΔP$ approaches $P_m$, the flow rate scales as $\langle Q \rangle \sim (|ΔP|-P_m)^{3/2}$. We have also provided some numerical results in support to our analytical findings.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Can Local Stress Enhancement Induce Stability in Fracture Processes? Part I: Apparent Stability

By comparing the evolution of the local and equal load sharing fiber bundle models, we point out the paradoxical result that stresses seem to make the local load sharing model stable when the equal load sharing model is not. We explain this behavior by demonstrating that it is only an apparent stability in the local load sharing model, which originates from a statistical effect due to sample averaging. Even though we use the fiber bundle model to demonstrate the apparent stability, we argue that it is a more general feature of fracture processes.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2019

A Dynamic Network Simulator for Immiscible Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

We present in detail a set of algorithms to carry out fluid displacements in a dynamic pore-network model of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. The algorithms are general and applicable to regular and irregular pore networks in two and three dimensions with different boundary conditions. Implementing these sets of algorithms, we describe a dynamic pore-network model and reproduce some of the fundamental properties of both the transient and steady-state two-phase flow. During drainage displacements, we show that the model can reproduce the flow patterns corresponding to viscous fingering, capillary fingering and stable displacement by altering the capillary number and the viscosity ratio. In steady-state flow, the model verifies the linear to non-linear transition of the effective rheological properties and satisfy the relations between the seepage velocities of two-phase flow in porous media.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Effective Rheology of Bi-Viscous Non-Newtonian Fluids in Porous Media

We model the flow of a bi-viscous non-Newtonian fluid in a porous medium by a square lattice where the links obey a piece-wise linear constitutive equation. We find numerically that the flow regime where the network transitions from all links behaving according to the first linear part of the constitutive equation to all links behaving according to the second linear part of the constitutive equation, is characterized by a critical point. We measure two critical exponents associated with this critical point, one of the being the correlation length exponent. We find that both critical exponents depend on the parameters of the model.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Variation of elastic energy shows reliable signal of upcoming catastrophic failure

We consider the Equal-Load-Sharing Fiber Bundle Model as a model for composite materials under stress and derive elastic energy and damage energy as a function of strain. With gradual increase of stress (or strain) the bundle approaches a catastrophic failure point where the elastic energy is always larger than the damage energy. We observe that elastic energy has a maximum that appears after the catastrophic failure point is passed, i.e., in the unstable phase of the system. However, the slope of elastic energy vs. strain curve has a maximum which always appears before the catastrophic failure point and therefore this can be used as a reliable signal of upcoming catastrophic failure. We study this behavior analytically for power-law type and Weibull type distributions of fiber thresholds and compare the results with numerical simulations on a single bundle with large number of fibers.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2018

Non-isothermal transport of multi-phase fluids in porous media. Constitutive equations

We develop constitutive equations for multi-component, multi-phase, macro-scale flow in a porous medium exposed to temperature-, composition-, and pressure -gradients. The porous medium is non-deformable. We define the pressure and the composition of the representative elementary volume (REV) in terms of the volume and surface averaged pressure and the saturation, and the respective driving forces from these variables. New contributions due to varying porosity or surface tension offer explanations for non-Darcy behavior. The interaction of a thermal and mechanical driving forces give thermal osmosis. An experimental program is suggested to verify Onsager symmetry in the transport coefficients.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Implications of Realistic Fracture Criteria on Crack Morphology

We study the effects realistic fracture criteria have on crack morphology obtained in numerical simulations with a stochastic discrete element method. Results are obtained with two criteria which are consistent with the theory of elasticity and compared with previous results using the original criterion, chosen when the method was first published, The conventional choice has been to consider the combined loading as an interaction between bending and tensile forces only, leaving out shear forces altogether. Moreover the combination of bending and tension used in the old criterion is correct only for plastic deformations. Our results show that the inclusion of shear forces have a profound effect on crack morphology. We consider two types of external loading, torsion applied to a circular cylinder and tension applied to a cube. In the tensile case, the exponent which characterises scaling of crack roughness with system size is found to be very close to the experimental value zeta = 0:5 when realistic fracture criteria are used. In the present calculations we obtain zeta = 0.52, a value which remains constant for all disorders. It is proposed that the small-scale exponent zeta = 0.8 appears as a consequence of cleavage between crystal planes and consequently requires a different fracture criterion than that which is used on larger scales.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2018

Mesoscopic Description of the Equal Load Sharing Fiber Bundle Model

One aim of the equal load sharing fiber bundle model is to describe the critical behavior of failure events. One way of accomplishing this, is through a discrete recursive dynamics. We introduce a continuous mesoscopic equation catching the critical behavior found through recursive dynamics. It allows us to link the model with the unifying framework of absorbing phase transitions traditionally used in the study of non-equilibrium phase transitions. Moreover, it highlights the analogy between equal load sharing and spinodal nucleation. Consequently, this work is a first step towards the quest of a field theory for fiber bundle models.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2018

Stable and efficient time integration of a dynamic pore network model for two-phase flow in porous media

We study three different time integration methods for a dynamic pore network model for immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. Considered are two explicit methods, the forward Euler and midpoint methods, and a new semi-implicit method developed herein. The explicit methods are known to suffer from numerical instabilities at low capillary numbers. A new time-step criterion is suggested in order to stabilize them. Numerical experiments, including a Haines jump case, are performed and these demonstrate that stabilization is achieved. Further, the results from the Haines jump case are consistent with experimental observations. A performance analysis reveals that the semi-implicit method is able to perform stable simulations with much less computational effort than the explicit methods at low capillary numbers. The relative benefit of using the semi-implicit method increases with decreasing capillary number $\mathrm{Ca}$, and at $\mathrm{Ca} \sim 10^{-8}$ the computational time needed is reduced by three orders of magnitude. This increased efficiency enables simulations in the low-capillary number regime that are unfeasible with explicit methods and the range of capillary numbers for which the pore network model is a tractable modeling alternative is thus greatly extended by the semi-implicit method.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2018

Non-isothermal transport of multi-phase fluids in porous media. The entropy production

We derive the entropy production for transport of multi-phase fluids in a non-deformable, porous medium exposed to differences in pressure, temperature, and chemical potentials. Thermodynamic extensive variables on the macro-scale are obtained by integrating over a representative elementary volume (REV). Using Euler homogeneity of the first order, we obtain the Gibbs equation for the REV. From this we define the intensive variables, the temperature, pressure and chemical potentials and, using the balance equations, derive the entropy production for the REV. The entropy production defines sets of independent conjugate thermodynamic fluxes and forces in the standard way. The transport of two-phase flow of immiscible components is used to illustrate the equations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

A Renormalization Group Procedure for Fiber Bundle Models

We introduce two versions of a renormalization group scheme for the equal load sharing fiber bundle model. The renormalization group is based on formulating the fiber bundle model in the language of damage mechanics. A central concept is the work performed on the fiber bundle to produce a given damage. The renormalization group conserves this work. In the first version of the renormalization group, we take advantage of ordering the strength of the individual fibers. This procedure, which is the simpler one, gives EXACT results -but cannot be generalized to other fiber bundle models such as the local load sharing one. The second renormalization group scheme based on the physical location of the individual fibers may be generalized to other fiber bundle models.

cond-mat.soft↗