Effect of gravity on colloidal particle transport in a saturated porous medium: Analytical solutions and experiments

The colloidal particle transport process in all porous media from laboratory to nature is affected by gravity. In this paper, a mathematical model of colloidal particle migration in a saturated porous medium with the gravity effect is established by combining the gap velocity (advection) with the settling velocity (gravity effect), and an analytical solution of the particle migration problem with time variation of the particle injection intensity is obtained using an integral transformation. The correctness and rationality of the analytical solution are verified by comparing the experimental and theoretical results of the particle migration problem in the point-source transient injection mode. The analytical solution can easily analyze the colloid transport experimental data in a variety of seepage directions. Analysis of the influence of seepage velocities in three different seepage directions on particle transport parameters shows: under the same seepage direction, the peak value of the breakthrough curve increased with an increase in the seepage velocity. The dispersion, adsorption coefficient, and deposition rate decreased with an increase in the seepage velocity. Under the same seepage velocity, the peak value of the breakthrough curve from large to small was vertically downward (VD)> horizontal (H)> vertically upward (VU), the order of dispersion from large to small was vertically downward (VD)>horizontal (H) >vertically upward (VU), the order of the adsorption coefficient and deposition rate of particles from large to small was vertically upward (VU)> horizontal (H) >vertically downward (VD), and the smaller the seepage velocity, the greater the relative differences in the peak value of the breakthrough curve, dispersion, the particle adsorption coefficient, and the deposition rate in the different seepage directions. Therefore, gravity is an important mechanism of particle migration in saturated porous media. The larger the particle size and density were, the smaller the seepage velocity was and the more obvious the effect of gravity. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of colloidal transport properties in porous media under the coupled effects of gravity and hydrodynamics.