Poroelastic Modelling of Gravitational Compaction

Abstract

A dynamic in-silico model captures the kinetics of 1-d gravity driven instabilities, in gravity or centrifuge, of fluid-infiltrated poroelastic media in a partial differential equation (pde). The pde yields the porosity profile over height and time for the given initial and boundary conditions, during slow compaction in counter-current fluid drainage. Processes captured are amongst others sedimentation, creaming and subsidence. The most important limiting prerequisite is that the incompressible dispersed medium is sufficiently structured and/or concentrated that it compacts during slow drainage, without segregation in sizes or in components. For Unilever, modeling of gravitational instability of products is important to quantify or extrapolate long time behavior during shelf life or use centrifuge data to quickly predict long term shelf performance of products.