Modeling of flow and transport at the microscale Original Research Article

Physical, chemical and biological processes at the microscale are very complicated. Understanding these processes is fundamental to understanding the behavior and characteristics of a porous medium. At this scale, the flow equations are the Navier–Stokes equations instead of Darcyʹs law. Not only are the equations nonlinear, but the flow domain is very irregular. A mixed-finite element method for irregular domains is presented. For the transport of contaminants or nutrients, also modeled in the same irregular domains, we use a finite element method. Numerical test cases are given.