Kinetics of the dispersion transition and nonergodicity of a system consisting of a disordered porous medium and a nonwetting liquid

Vladimir D. Borman, Anton A. Belogorlov, Victor A. Byrkin, and Vladimir N. Tronin
Phys. Rev. E 88, 052116 – Published 11 November 2013

Abstract

An approach has been proposed for the description of the dispersion transition of a nonwetting liquid in confinement. This approach describes intrusion and extrusion processes for the ground state of a disordered porous medium, which is characterized by the formation of a fractal percolation cluster. The observed transition of the system of liquid nanoclusters in confinement to a metastable state in a narrow range of degrees of filling and temperatures has been explained by the appearance of a potential barrier owing to fluctuations of the collective “multiparticle interaction” of liquid nanoclusters in neighboring pores of different sizes on the shell of the fractal percolation cluster of filled pores. The energy of the metastable state forms a potential relief in the space of the porous medium with many maxima and minima. The volume of the dispersed liquid in the metastable state has been calculated within the analytical percolation theory for the ground state with the infinite percolation cluster. The extrusion-time distribution function of pores has been calculated. It has been found that the volume of the nonwetting liquid remaining in the porous medium decreases with time according to a power law. Relaxation in the system under study is a multistep process involving discontinuous equilibrium and overcoming of many local maxima of the potential relief. The formation of the metastable state of the trapped nonwetting liquid has been attributed to the nonergodicity of the disordered porous medium. The model reproduces the observed dependence of the volume of the dispersed liquid both on the degree of filling and on the temperature.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
5 More
  • Received 3 September 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.88.052116

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Vladimir D. Borman*, Anton A. Belogorlov, Victor A. Byrkin, and Vladimir N. Tronin

  • Department of Molecular Physics, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow, Russia

  • *VDBorman@mephi.ru
  • VAByrkin@mephi.ru

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 88, Iss. 5 — November 2013

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review E

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×