Dissolution–precipitation processes in tank experiments for testing numerical models for reactive transport calculations: Experiments and modelling

•We performed 2D clogging experiments to test reactive transport codes.•Our experiments involved buoyancy effect and dissolution/precipitation reactions.•We successfully simulated conservative mass transport and density driven flow.•Experimental micro-scale changes were considered in our continuum scale approach.•We successfully reproduced the reactive transport experiment.

In the context of testing reactive transport codes and their underlying conceptual models, a simple 2D reactive transport experiment was developed. The aim was to use simple chemistry and design a reproducible and fast to conduct experiment, which is flexible enough to include several process couplings: advective–diffusive transport of solutes, effect of liquid phase density on advective transport, and kinetically controlled dissolution/precipitation reactions causing porosity changes. A small tank was filled with a reactive layer of strontium sulfate (SrSO4) of two different grain sizes, sandwiched between two layers of essentially non-reacting quartz sand (SiO2). A highly concentrated solution of barium chloride was injected to create an asymmetric flow field. Once the barium chloride reached the reactive layer, it forced the transformation of strontium sulfate into barium sulfate (BaSO4). Due to the higher molar volume of barium sulfate, its precipitation caused a decrease of porosity and lowered the permeability. Changes in the flow field were observed with help of dye tracer tests. The experiments were modelled using the reactive transport code OpenGeosys-GEM. Tests with non-reactive tracers performed prior to barium chloride injection, as well as the density-driven flow (due to the high concentration of barium chloride solution), could be well reproduced by the numerical model. To reproduce the mineral bulk transformation with time, two populations of strontium sulfate grains with different kinetic rates of dissolution were applied. However, a default porosity permeability relationship was unable to account for measured pressure changes. Post mortem analysis of the strontium sulfate reactive medium provided useful information on the chemical and structural changes occurring at the pore scale at the interface that were considered in our model to reproduce the pressure evolution with time.