Dissolution of Cavities and Porous Media: a Multi-Scale View

Abstract

Dissolution of underground cavities or porous media involves many different scales that must be taken into account in modeling attempts. This paper presents a review of some of these problems. The paper starts with an introduction to non-equilibrium models, which play an important role in understanding dissolution physics for such media. In particular, their fundamental importance in catching dissolution instability diagrams is emphasized. A second multi-scale aspect is the introduction of the concept of effective surface for dealing with heterogeneous and/or rough surfaces. All these concepts may be used to develop efficient large-scale simulations. Examples are given for simple situations which emphasize the strong coupling between dissolution and buoyancy plumes generated within the dissolution boundary layer