Articles techniques et présentations

The reactive transport simulation interface COMSOL-PHREEQC, developed by Wissmeier & Barry (2011), provides a MATLAB®-based coupling interface to combine COMSOL Multiphysics® for flow and heat transport simulations and PHREEQC as a geochemical batch reaction simulator. The functionality of the coupling tool is tested using the “calcite” example (Shao et al. 2010) as a benchmark. The results of COMSOL-PHREEQC are compared to OpenGeoSys, coupled with PHREEQC. In the example, a column initially contains calcite and water. During the experiment, the column is flushed with a MgCl2 solution. At the front of the plume, calcite dissolves and dolomite precipitates temporarily. OpenGeoSys and COMSOL Multiphysics® yield similar results for non-reactive transport and reactive transport in capillaries, but differ in porous media.