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Salt crystallisation at the surface of a heterogeneous porous medium

Veran-Tissoires, Stéphanie and Marcoux, Manuel and Prat, Marc Salt crystallisation at the surface of a heterogeneous porous medium. (2012) EPL (Europhysics Letters), 98 (3). 34005-p1. ISSN 0295-5075

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/98/34005

Abstract

Evaporation of saline solutions from a porous medium often leads to the precipitation of salt at the surface of the porous medium. It is commonly observed that the crystallized salt does not form everywhere at the porous medium surface but only at some specific locations. To explain this phenomenon, we consider efflorescence formation at the surface of a saturated heterogeneous porous column (finer porous medium in coarse porous medium background) in the wicking situation. We study the impact of permeability and porosity contrasts on the efflorescence formation location from a simple visualisation experiment and Darcy's scale numerical simulations. We show that the porosity is the most sensitive parameter for our experiment and that efflorescence forms at the surface of the medium of lower porosity. A simple efflorescence growth model is then used to explain why the efflorescence continues to grow at the surface of the lower porosity medium without spreading over the adjacent surface of the greater porosity medium.

Item Type:Article
Additional Information:Thanks to EDP Sciences editor. The definitive version is available at http://iopscience.iop.org The original PDF of the article can be found at EPL (Europhysics Letters) website : http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/98/34005
HAL Id:hal-00840891
Audience (journal):International peer-reviewed journal
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Institution:French research institutions > Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (FRANCE)
Université de Toulouse > Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse - Toulouse INP (FRANCE)
Université de Toulouse > Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT3 (FRANCE)
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Deposited On:29 May 2013 12:05

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