arXiv subjects

Vaughan Voller

Publications and source records attributed to Vaughan Voller.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the closed solution of a problem coupling fluid infiltration with a hydration reaction

We present a one-dimensional model for water infiltration coupled with a hydration reaction, relevant to coupled transport and chemical processes in the Earth's subsurface. In this model the sharp interface separating the saturated and dry regions evolves over time, leading to a moving free boundary problem. Consistent with recently presented numerical treatments in the literature, this solution indicates an interesting dynamic for the free boundary. At early time, for a given domain porosity, the infiltration front advances with a specific square-root-in-time behavior. At later time, depending on the consumption of the hydration reaction, the front advance can exhibit square-root, linear, or exponential forms. The presented closed solution provides an analytical tool that can be used to quantify important behavior in coupled transport and reaction systems.

math.AP↗

arXiv2026

Retreat to advance: self-blocking enables efficient mineral replacement

Mineral replacement reactions under advective flow often suffer from severe spatial inefficiency: dissolution causes the flow to self-focus into a few dominant wormholes that bypass the surrounding matrix, leaving most of the rock unreplaced. Here we show -- through two-dimensional pore-network simulations -- that replacement can be effective in two regimes. The first arises when the precipitation rate significantly exceeds the dissolution rate, leading to in situ replacement in which a uniform front of the secondary mineral advances through the matrix. The second, exploratory mode, occurs when the system repeatedly self-blocks and re-routes. In this regime, each channel lives only long enough to deliver reactant a short distance ahead of the front before its tip is cemented by the product phase; pressure re-routes through an adjacent corridor, and the cycle begins anew. Over time the replacement front advances as a mosaic of overlapping micro-fronts, distributing the secondary mineral almost uniformly. We derive design criteria for achieving exploratory-mode behaviour and discuss implications for both natural and engineered reactive-infiltration systems.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Stochastic modelling of the instantaneous velocity profile in rough-wall turbulent boundary layers

The statistical properties of Uniform Momentum Zones (UMZs) are extracted from laboratory and field measurements in rough wall turbulent boundary layers to formulate a set of stochastic models for the simulation of instantaneous velocity profiles. A spatio-temporally resolved velocity dataset, covering a field of view of $8 \times 9$ m$^2$, was obtained in the atmospheric surface layer using super-large-scale particle image velocimetry (SLPIV), as part of the Grand-scale Atmospheric Imaging Apparatus (GAIA). Wind tunnel data from a previous study are included for comparison \citep{heisel2020mixing}. The probability density function of UMZ attributes such as their thickness, modal velocity, and averaged vertical velocity are built at varying elevations and modeled using log-normal and Gaussian distributions. Inverse transform sampling of the distributions is used to generate synthetic step-like velocity profiles that are spatially and temporally uncorrelated. Results show that in the wide range of wall-normal distances and $Re_τ$ up to $ \sim O(10^6)$ investigated here, shear velocity scaling is manifested in the velocity jump across shear interfaces between adjacent UMZs, and attached eddy behavior is observed in the linear proportionality between UMZ thickness and their wall normal location. These very same characteristics are recovered in the generated instantaneous profiles, using both a fully stochastic and a data-driven hybrid stochastic models, which address, in different ways, the coupling between modal velocities and UMZ thickness. Our method provides a stochastic approach for generating an ensemble of instantaneous velocity profiles, consistent with the structural organization of UMZs, where the ensemble reproduces the logarithmic mean velocity profile and recovers significant portions of the Reynolds stresses and thus of the streamwise and vertical velocity variability.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Some comments on using fractional derivative operators in modeling non-local diffusion processes

We start with a general governing equation for diffusion transport, written in a conserved form, in which the phenomenological flux laws can be constructed in a number of alternative ways. We pay particular attention to flux laws that can account for non-locality through space fractional derivative operators. The available results on the well posedness of the governing equations using such flux laws are discussed. A discrete control volume numerical solution of the general conserved governing equation is developed and a general discrete treatment of boundary conditions, independent of the particular choice of flux law, is presented. We use numerical solutions of various test problems to compare the operation and predictive ability of two discrete fractional diffusion flux laws based on the Caputo (C) and Riemann-Liouville (RL) derivatives respectively. When compared with the C flux-law we note that the RL flux law includes an additional term, that, in a phenomenological sense, acts as an apparent advection transport. Through our test solutions we show that, when compared to the performance of the C flux-law, this extra term can lead to RL-flux law predictions that may be physically and mathematically unsound. We conclude, by proposing a parsimonious definition for a fractional derivative based flux law that removes the ambiguities associated with the selection between non-local flux laws based on the RL and C fractional derivatives.

math.AP↗