Heat and mass transport in random velocity fields with application to dispersion in porous media (Q1891593)

The paper deals with the transport of scalar species in random velocity fields. The aim is the description of the macroscale transport process, that is on length and time scales that are much larger than the scales of variations of the velocity field. An effective medium equation with effective parameters depending on the global character of the velocity field will be emphasized. The convection of Brownian passive tracers is considered in a random incompressible velocity field which is statistically homogeneous and infinitely extended. In order to obtain the equation of the effective process, the author proposes a modification of the homogenization method that determines the effective equation to any degree of approximation. In this study, not only the space, but the time, too, are homogenized. As a matter of fact, two space variables and three time variables are introduced. A Fickian constitutive relation is derived for the effective transport. The results are applied to the transport of passive tracers in the stationary flow field generated by a random distribution of spheroids in dilute fixed beds.