Reaction-infiltration instability in a compacting porous medium
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Date
10/10/2018Keywords
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Abstract
Certain geological features have been interpreted as evidence of channelized magma flow in the mantle, which is a compacting porous medium. Aharonov et al. (J. Geophys. Res., vol. 100 (B10), 1995, pp. 20433-20450) developed a simple model of reactive porous flow and numerically analysed its instability to channels. The instability relies on magma advection against a chemical solubility gradient and the porosity-dependent permeability of the porous host rock. We extend the previous analysis by systematically mapping out the parameter space. Crucially, we augment numerical solutions with asymptotic analysis to better understand the physical controls on the instability. We derive scalings for the critical conditions of the instability and analyse the associated bifurcation structure. We also determine scalings for the wavelengths and growth rates of the channel structures that emerge. We obtain quantitative theories for and a physical understanding of, first, how advection or diffusion over the reactive time scale sets the horizontal length scale of channels and, second, the role of viscous compaction of the host rock, which also affects the vertical extent of channelized flow. These scalings allow us to derive estimates of the dimensions of emergent channels that are consistent with the geologic record.
Citation
Rees Jones , D W & Katz , R F 2018 , ' Reaction-infiltration instability in a compacting porous medium ' , Journal of Fluid Mechanics , vol. 852 , pp. 5-36 . https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2018.524
Publication
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-1120Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2018, Cambridge University Press. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher's policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2018.524
Description
Funding: D.W.R.J. acknowledges research funding through the NERC Consortium grant NE/M000427/1.Collections
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