Chaotic Advection to Enhance Reagent Delivery

Chaotic advection refers to the generation of small-scale structures from the repeated stretching and folding of fluid elements in a laminar flow regime. The small-scale structures produced by this chaotic stirring create fluid elements that are stretched out into long, thin filaments with a length scale sufficiently small for diffusion to promote efficient mixing. It has been theorized that chaotic advection has the potential to overcome preferential flow paths and enhance mixing. One configuration which has been theoretically and experimentally used to invoke chaotic advection in porous media is termed a rotated potential mixing flow.  If chaotic advection can be invoked and controlled in situ, reagent delivery and treatment effectiveness may be significantly improved. The primary objective of this research effort is to improve our understanding of chaotic advection and its implications on reagent delivery. The figure below shows contours of simulated reagent concentrations during rotated potential mixing flow.

contours of simulated reagent concentrations during potential mixing flow