Lagrangian Statistical Model for Transport in Highly Heterogeneous Velocity Fields

Abstract : We define an effective Lagrangian statistical model in phase space (x, t, v) for describing transport inhighly heterogeneous velocity fields with complex spatial organizations. The spatial Markovian nature (and temporal non-Markovian nature) of Lagrangian velocities leads to an effective transport description that turns out to be a correlated continuous time random walk. This model correctly captures the Lagrangian velocity correlation properties and is demonstrated to represent a forward model for predicting transport in highly heterogeneous porous media for different types of velocity organizations.