Multicomponent, Multiphase Thermodynamics of Swelling Porous Media with Electroquasistatics: I. Macroscale Field Equations

A systematic development of the macroscopic field equations (conservation of mass, linear and angular momentum, energy, and Maxwell’s equations) for a multiphase, multicomponent medium is presented. It is assumed that speeds involved are much slower than the speed of light and that the magnitude of the electric field significantly dominates over the magnetic field so that the electroquasistatic form of Maxwell’s equations applies. A mixture formulation is presented for each phase and then averaged to obtain the macroscopic formulation. Species electric fields are considered, however it is assumed that it is the total electric field which contributes to the electrically induced forces and energy. The relationships between species and bulk phase variables and the macroscopic and microscopic variables are given explicitly. The resulting field equations are of relevance to many practical applications including, but not limited to, swelling clays (smectites), biopolymers, biological membranes, pulsed electrophoresis, and chromatography.