Reports: G8 47853-G8: Capillary Tension in Reactive Two-Phase Flow

Saswata Hier-Majumder, University of Maryland

The grant, ACS PRF#47853-G8, continued supporting the research of this group in the area of reactive porous flow. During the first year of the grant,the PI, along with a colleague from the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo derived a new set of governing equations for reactive porous flow. This research demonstrated the existence of two distinct processes dominate reactive porous flow, depending on the length scales associated with it. This year, this work was further advanced by graduate student Xiaoming Liu (partially supported by the grant) when she published her Master's thesis in a peer-reviewed journal. Xiaoming studied the chemical signature of porous flow by field studies, using Li isotopes and modeling the distribution during a reactive porous flow. Her research demonstrated that advection of Li by porous flow, rather than only diffusion as previously suggested, plays a major role in the asymmetric distribution of Li in country rocks undergoing contact metamorphism near an igneous intrusion. A second development of this research is a new collaboration with Dan King, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. In this coupled modeling-experimental research, the PI and collaborators demonstrate that dissolution-precipitation driven two-phase flow is able to explain the annealing of melt-rich bands created during deformation of partially molten rocks. These results have deep significance for the existence of melt veins in post tectonic rocks. The article from this collaboration is currently under preparation and is planned for submission in Fall, 2010.

 
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