Core-scale description of porous media dissolution during acid injection – part I: Theoretical development

Abstract

Dissolution mechanisms in porous media may lead to unstable dissolution fronts (“wormholing”). It has been shown in the literature that Darcy-scale models may reproduce all the characteristics of such dissolution patterns. This paper considers the core-scale averaged behavior of these Darcy-scale dissolution models. The form of core-scale equations is discussed based on the volume averaging of the Darcy-scale equations. The uncertainty about the choice of the unit cell (and boundary conditions) to solve the closure problems and the impact of the dissolution history on the core-scale properties is emphasized.