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Dry CO₂ injection into saline aquifers can induce brine evaporation and
subsequent salt precipitation, leading to pore blockage and reduced injectivity.
While X-ray micro-CT imaging provides detailed characterisation of rock
microstructure, the dynamic evolution of salt precipitation within complex pore
geometries remains challenging to observe directly.
In this work, pore networks extracted from micro-CT images are used as the
structural basis to simulate evaporation-driven salt precipitation at the pore
scale. The modelling framework couples gas invasion, vapour transport, liquid
mass balance, and progressive modification of pore and throat radii due to precipitation.
By tracking the spatial evolution of evaporation fronts and salt accumulation, we demonstrate how microstructural heterogeneity governs precipitation patterns.
Salt preferentially localises in regions of high gas accessibility and within flow-controlling throats, forming clustered deposits associated with spatially non-uniform permeability reduction.
These results illustrate how static rock imaging data can be integrated with
dynamic transport modelling to interpret and predict precipitation-induced
formation damage. The framework provides a pathway for linking micro-CT-derived structure to process-based insight relevant to geological CO₂ storage.

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