Within the framework of the REFLECT project, the French Geological Survey (BRGM), in collaboration with the Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Orléans, has developed the software package porousMedia4Foam. In this open-source, multiscale and multiphase package, OpenFOAM® is coupled with the PHREEQC code to investigate hydro-geochemical interactions.
Figure: Calculations with porousMedia4Foam
OpenFOAM is a well-established open-source finite-volume based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package with the capability to run simulations in parallel. OpenFOAM® has extensively been used to model and analyse a diverse set of applications ranging from single to multiphase phase flows, laminar and turbulence flows, capillary driven flows, phase-change, etc. OpenFOAM uses C++ as the primary coding language. The rich set of existing libraries and the use of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in OpenFOAM assisted in developing new classes and inheriting existing classes as per requirements. porousMedia4Foam was initially developed to model fluid flows (single and multiphase) in porous media.
In the current release, the fluid flow modelling capabilities of porousMedia4Foam have been extended to additionally account for geochemical interactions. The main highlights of the current release include:
- 1) A unique multi-scale framework, allowing the user to run hybrid-scale hydro-geochemical cases for single-phase systems.
- 2) Two well-established open-source packages (OpenFOAM and PHREEQC) coupled to model hydro-geochemical systems. The source code and some tutorials are available on GitHub: https://github.com/csoulain/porousMedia4Foam
Detailed information about porousMedia4Foam can be found in the following open-access publication:
Cyprien Soulaine, Saideep Pavuluri, Francis Claret, Christophe Tournassat.
porousMedia4Foam: Multi-scale open-source platform for hydro-geochemical simulations with OpenFOAM®. Environmental Modelling and Software, Elsevier, 2021, 145, pp.105199.
10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105199
In addition, the user’s guide of porousMedia4Foam can be consulted in the REFLECT Deliverable 4.1:
Pavuluri, S., André, L., Tournassat, C., Claret, F., Soulaine, C. (2021): The H2020 REFLECT project: Deliverable 4.1 – User’s Guide of a Coupled Hydro-Thermal-Chemical Code for Fluids, Potsdam: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 55 p.
https://doi.org/10.48440/gfz.4.8.2021.002
