NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL NETWORK STUDY OF EVAPORATION IN CAPILLARY-POROUS MEDIA - PHASE DISTRIBUTIONS

Experiments of evaporation are carried out in a two-dimensional microm odel under quasi-isothermal conditions. The phase distributions within the network are visualized and compared to numerical pore network sim ulations. Numerical simulation agrees very well with the experimental results for the three basic cases investigated, i.e. in the absence of gravity forces, in a stabilizing gravity field and in a destabilizing gravity field. The phase distributions are also compared with drainag e phase distributions obtained experimentally by means of the same mic romodel. The comparison between the experimental drainage and evaporat ion patterns confirms numerical predictions presented in a previous st udy. The influence of the viscous forces, which are not taken into acc ount in the simulator, is discussed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd