Pore-Scale Investigation of Two-Phase Flows in Three-Dimensional Digital Models of Natural Sandstones

The results of numerical simulation of the processes of two-phase flow through a porous medium in three-dimensional digital models of the porous space of three natural sandstone samples are given. The calculations are carried out using the lattice Boltzmann equations and the digital field gradient model over a wide range of the capillary numbers and the viscosity ratios of injected and displaced fluids. The conditions of flow through a porous medium with capillary fingering, viscous fingering and with stable displacement front are revealed.     

单组分多相系统驱替过程的格子Boltzmann模拟

结合格子Boltzmann方法中的Shan-Chen单组分多相模型,引入流体相间的内聚力和流体与 固体壁面间的黏附力,对二维孔隙网格中非浸润气相驱替完全浸润液相的过程进行模拟,流 体相间的交界面自然形成,整个驱替过程属于毛细指进. 随着毛细数的增加,黏性力的主导 作用增强,使得气相入侵的孔隙尺度减小,因此驱替形态随毛细数的不同有很大差别. 在微 重力的作用下,整个驱替过程受毛细力、重力和黏性力的共同作用,重力起到了稳定交界面 避免窜流的作用.     

Enhancing Immiscible Fluid Displacement in Porous Media by Capillary Pressure Discontinuities

Fluid displacement in porous media plays an important role in many industrial applications, including biological filtration, carbon capture and storage, enhanced oil recovery, and fluid transport in fuel cells. The displacement front is unstable, which evolves from smooth into ramified patterns, when the mobility (ratio of permeability to viscosity) of the displacing fluid is larger than that of the displaced one; this phenomenon is called viscous fingering. Viscous fingering increases the residual saturation of the displaced fluid, considerably impairing the efficacy of fluid displacement. It is of practical importance to develop suitable methods to improve fluid displacement. This paper presents an experimental study on applying the discontinuity of capillary pressure to improve immiscible fluid displacement in drainage for which the displacing fluid (air) wets the porous media less preferentially than does the displaced fluid (silicone oil). The concept involves using a heterogeneous packing system, where the upstream region features large pores and small capillary pressure, and the downstream region features small pores and large capillary pressure. The increase in capillary pressure prevents fingering from directly crossing the media interface, thus enhancing the displacement. The experimental apparatus was a linear cell comprising porous media between two parallel plates, and glass beads of 0.6 and 0.125 mm diameter were packed to compose the heterogeneous porous media. The time history of the finger flow was recorded using a video camera. Pressure drops over the model from the inlet to the outlet were measured to compare viscous pressure drops with capillary pressures. The results show that the fluid displacement was increased by the capillary discontinuities. The optimal displacement was determined through linear regression by adjusting the relative length of the large- and small-pore region. The results may assist in the understanding of fingering flow across the boundaries of different grain-sized bands for the gas and oil reservoir management, such as setting the relative location of the injection and production wells. The findings may also serve as a reference for industrial applications such as placing the grain bands in an adequate series to improve the displacement efficacy in biological filtration.     

Multiresolution Wavelet Scale Up of Unstable Miscible Displacements in Flow Through Heterogeneous Porous Media

We describe scale up of geological models of field-scale porous media using a new method based on the wavelet transformations. The porous media of interest contain broadly-distributed and correlated permeabilities. Wavelet transformation of the permeability field of such porous media coarsens the geological model from smallest to largest length scales, drastically reduces the number of equations to be solved, preserves the important information on the permeability field at all the relevant length scales, and yields numerical results for any fluid flow property that are as accurate as those that are obtained with the highly detailed geological model of the same porous media. To test this method, we carry out extensive computer simulations of unstable miscible displacement processes and the associated viscous fingering phenomenon in highly heterogeneous porous media, both with the fine-scale geological model and the coarsened model. Excellent agreement is found between the results of the two sets of simulations.     

湿润性对孔隙介质两相渗流驱替效率的影响

孔隙介质中多相渗流的驱替效率对二氧化碳封存效率和石油采收率具有决定性影响, 是实际工程调控中的一个关键指标. 湿润性是影响多相渗流驱替模式及其效率的一个重要因素. 本文通过微流体模型-显微镜-高速相机可视化实验平台, 对基于真实砂岩孔隙结构的微流体模型进行湿润性修饰, 开展了5种流量和2种湿润性的两相驱替可视化实验, 研究了湿润性对砂岩孔隙结构中两相渗流驱替模式及其效率的重要影响. 实验结果表明: 随着流速的增大, 两相渗流驱替模式由毛细指流向稳定流发生转变; 在低流速条件下, 由于毛细力的主导效应, 亲水性介质中指进的宽度和被驱替流体团簇的数目均小于疏水性介质, 而被驱替流体团簇的最大半径、平均半径和方差均大于疏水性介质. 实验结果还证实了亲水性介质中由于单支优势通道和"绕流"现象的发生, 驱替效率显著小于疏水性介质. 最后, 通过考虑接触角效应对毛细管数进行修正, 建立了考虑湿润性影响的驱替效率和毛细管数之间的统一关系式, 为不同湿润性条件下驱替效率的预测提供了一种潜在方法.      

Relative permeability and capillary pressure functions of porous media as related to the displacement growth pattern

Visualization experiments of the unsteady immiscible displacement of a fluid by another are performed on glass-etched pore networks of well-controlled morphology by varying the fluid system and flow conditions. The measured transient responses of the fluid saturation and pressure drop across the porous medium are introduced into numerical solvers of the macroscopic two-phase flow equations to estimate the non-wetting phase, k_rnw, and wetting phase, k_rw, relative permeability curves and capillary pressure, P_c, curve. The correlation of k_rnw, k_rw, and P_c with the displacement growth pattern is investigated. Except for the capillary number, wettability, and viscosity ratio, the immiscible displacement growth pattern in a porous medium may be governed by the shear-thinning rheology of the injected or displaced fluid, and the porous sample length as compared to the thickness of the frontal region. The imbibition k_rnw increases as the flow pattern changes from compact displacement to viscous fingering or from viscous to capillary fingering. The imbibition k_rw increases as the flow pattern changes from compact displacement or capillary fingering to viscous fingering. As the shear-thinning behaviour of the NWP strengthens and/or the contact angle decreases, then the flow pattern is gradually dominated by irregular interfacial configurations, and the imbibition k_rnw increases. The imbibition P_c is a decreasing function of the capillary number or increasing function of the injected phase viscosity in agreement with the linear thermodynamic theory.     

Pore-Scale Simulations of Gas Displacing Liquid in a Homogeneous Pore Network Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

A lattice Boltzmann high-density-ratio model, which uses diffuse interface theory to describe the interfacial dynamics and was proposed originally by Lee and Liu (J Comput Phys 229:8045–8063, 2010), is extended to simulate immiscible multiphase flows in porous media. A wetting boundary treatment is proposed for concave and convex corners. The capability and accuracy of this model is first validated by simulations of equilibrium contact angle, injection of a non-wetting gas into two parallel capillary tubes, and dynamic capillary intrusion. The model is then used to simulate gas displacement of liquid in a homogenous two-dimensional pore network consisting of uniformly spaced square obstructions. The influence of capillary number (Ca), viscosity ratio ( $M$ M ), surface wettability, and Bond number (Bo) is studied systematically. In the drainage displacement, we have identified three different regimes, namely stable displacement, capillary fingering, and viscous fingering, all of which are strongly dependent upon the capillary number, viscosity ratio, and Bond number. Gas saturation generally increases with an increase in capillary number at breakthrough, whereas a slight decrease occurs when Ca is increased from $8.66\times 10^{-4}$ 8.66 × 10 - 4 to $4.33\times 10^{-3}$ 4.33 × 10 - 3 , which is associated with the viscous instability at high Ca. Increasing the viscosity ratio can enhance stability during displacement, leading to an increase in gas saturation. In the two-dimensional phase diagram, our results show that the viscous fingering regime occupies a zone markedly different from those obtained in previous numerical and experimental studies. When the surface wettability is taken into account, the residual liquid blob decreases in size with the affinity of the displacing gas to the solid surface. Increasing Bo can increase the gas saturation, and stable displacement is observed for $Bo>1$ B o > 1 because the applied gravity has a stabilizing influence on the drainage process.     

Characterization of the crossover from capillary invasion to viscous fingering to fracturing during drainage in a vertical 2D porous medium

We experimentally studied the displacement of a viscous wetting fluid (water) by an inviscid non-wetting fluid (air) injected at the bottom of a vertical Hele-Shaw cell filled with glass microbeads. In order to cover a wide parameter space, the permeability of the porous medium was varied by using different bead size ranges and diverse air flow rates were generated by means of a syringe pump. A LED light table was used to back illuminate the experimental cell, allowing a high speed camera to capture images of the drainage process at equal time intervals. The invasion occurred in intermittent bursts. Image processing of the bursts and fractal analysis showed successive transitions from capillary invasion to viscous fingering to fracturing during the same experiment, dependent on the medium permeability, the air injection flow rate, and the vertical position in the cell. The interplay between the capillary, viscous and gravity forces determines the nature of the invasion pattern and the transitions, from capillary invasion to viscous fingering with decreasing fluid pressure on one hand and from viscous fingering to fracturing with decreasing effective overburden pressure on the other hand.     

Unstable Displacement of Non-aqueous Phase Liquids with Surfactant and Polymer

In this paper, we study two-phase multicomponent displacement of two immiscible fluids in both homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media. In many applications such as enhanced oil recovery, fluid mixing and spreading can be detrimental to the efficacy of the process. Here, we show that when an initially immobile phase is being displaced by a finite-size slug of solvents (surfactant and polymer), viscous fingering significantly enhances mixing and spreading of solvents. These effects are similar to those caused by medium heterogeneity and lead to poor displacement efficiency. We first quantify the displacement efficiency subject to different mobility ratios, Peclet numbers, and levels of medium heterogeneity. We observe a non-monotonic behavior in displacement efficiency as a function of mobility ratio, indicating that although stable frontal interface is desirable, miscible viscous fingering on the rear interface will eventually disintegrate the solvents slugs and reduce the displacement efficiency. Then, we show that miscible viscous fingering developing on the rear interface of the chemical slug could be greatly suppressed when viscosity contrast is gradually decreased using exponential or linear functions, leading to 10% increase in displacement efficiency while using the same amount of chemicals. To elucidate this low displacement efficiency, we study the evolution of mixing, spreading, and interfacial length and show that while higher viscosity ratios are quite effective in mobilizing the initially immobile phase in 1D displacements, they are in fact detrimental in 2D unstable displacements since they enhance mixing and spreading of solvents.

     

LBM simulation of fluid flow in fractured porous media with permeable matrix

To analyze and depict complicated fluid behaviors in fractured porous media with variably permeable matrix, an integrated discrete computational algorithm is proposed based on lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). This paper combines with the external force model and statistical material physics to effectively describe the feature changes while the fluid passes through the fractures within the permeable matrix. As an application example, a two dimensional rock sample is reconstructed using the digital image and characterized with different feature values at each LBM grid to distinguish pores, impermeable and permeable matrix by stating its local physical property. Compared with the conventional LBM, the results demonstrate the advantages of proposed algorithm in modeling fluid flow phenomenon in fractured porous media with variably permeable matrix.     

Numerical Investigation of Viscous Fingering Phenomenon for Raw Field Data

This paper numerically investigates the viscous fingering phenomenon. Two-dimensional horizontal model reservoir was considered for homogeneous porous media with immiscible fluids. A series of numerical simulations was performed with two distinct solvers for various combinations of relative permeability, capillary pressure and material properties in order to analyse morphological properties of viscous fingers in a wide-range spectrum of real field conditions. A phenomenological classification of viscous fingers is proposed.

     

A Multi-Scale Approach to Model Two-Phase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media

The immiscible displacement of a wetting fluid by a non-wetting one in heterogeneous porous media is modeled using a multi-scale network-type analysis: (1) The pressure-controlled immiscible displacement of water by oil in pore-and-throat networks (1st length scale ~ 1?mm) is simulated as a capillary-driven process. (2) The pressure-controlled immiscible displacement in uncorrelated cubic lattices (2nd length scale ~ 1?cm) is simulated as a site percolation process governed by capillary and gravity forces. At this scale, each node represents a network of the previous scale. (3) The rate-controlled immiscible displacement of water by oil in cubic networks (3rd length scale ~ 10?cm), where each node represents a lattice of the previous scale, is simulated by accounting for capillary, gravity, and viscous forces. The multi-scale approach along with the information concerning the pore structure properties of the porous medium can be employed to determine the transient responses of the pressure drop and axial distribution of water saturation, and estimate the effective (up-scaled) relative permeability functions. The method is demonstrated with application to data of highly heterogeneous soils.     

FORCE EVALUATION USING MOMENTUM-EXCHANGEMETHOD IN POROUS MEDIA

流经多孔介质的流动广泛存在于化工生产、多孔颗粒悬浮流等领域,如何准确计算流体与多孔介质之间的作用力是研究此类流动的一个关键因素. 作为一种有效的流体计算方法,格子波尔兹曼方法（lattice Boltzmannmethod,LBM）常采用动量交换法计算流体与固体之间相互作用力. 分析了流体流经多孔介质时两者的动量交换过程,提出了一种高效的动量交换法来计算流固作用力,并在孔隙尺度下对其进行了验证,结果表明该方法是可行的. 进而将该方法推广到计算表征体元（表征体元）尺度下的流-固相互作用,并对不同雷诺数（Re）下的多孔方柱绕流问题进行了模拟和验证.     

柔性微粒介电泳分离过程的多尺度模拟

介电泳分离是一种高效的微细颗粒分离技术,利用非均匀电场极化并操纵分离微流道中的颗粒. 柔性微粒在介电泳分离过程中同时受多种物理场、多相流和微粒变形等复杂因素的影响,仅用单一的计算方法对其进行模拟存在一定的难度,本文采用有限单元——格子玻尔兹曼耦合计算的方法处理这一难题.介观尺度的格子玻尔兹曼方法将流体看成由大量微小粒子组成,在离散格子上求解玻尔兹曼输运方程,易于处理多相流及大变形问题,特别适合模拟柔性颗粒在介电泳分离过程中的变形情况.另一方面,介电泳分离过程的模拟需求解流体、电场和微粒运动方程,计算量相当庞大,通过有限单元法求解介电泳力,提高计算效率.利用这种多尺度耦合计算方法,对一款现有的介电泳芯片分离过程进行了模拟.分析了微粒在电场作用下产生的介电泳力,揭示了介电泳力与电场变化率等因素之间的关系.对微粒运动轨迹及其变形的情况进行了研究,发现微粒的变形主要与流体剪切作用有关.这种多尺度耦合计算方法,为复杂微流体的计算提供了一种有效的解决方案.      

Coupling of Foam Drainage and Viscous Fingering in Porous Media Revealed by X-ray Computed Tomography

We investigate the development foam in granular porous media and the subsequent flow of the surfactant solution, where the fluid fraction variations are visualized and quantified using X-ray computed tomography. It is found that foam flows in a front like manner leading to a residual liquid fraction of 0.18±0.01, far from the inlet surface of the porous sample. A desaturation backward wave is also observed during foam development. We provided direct evidence that the flow of surfactant solution in porous media containing foam gives rise to superposition of a drainage wave and a characteristic viscous fingering pattern. In the wave the liquid fraction ranges from the above residual value to nearly 0.25±0.01. The liquid fraction associated with the viscous fingering decays as a function of distance but the inlet value increases up to 0.06±0.01. Certain ideas about the physics of foam flow in porous media are revised in the light of our findings.     

多孔介质中流固作用力的动量交换计算

流经多孔介质的流动广泛存在于化工生产、多孔颗粒悬浮流等领域,如何准确计算流体与多孔介质之间的作用力是研究此类流动的一个关键因素. 作为一种有效的流体计算方法,格子波尔兹曼方法（lattice Boltzmannmethod,LBM）常采用动量交换法计算流体与固体之间相互作用力. 分析了流体流经多孔介质时两者的动量交换过程,提出了一种高效的动量交换法来计算流固作用力,并在孔隙尺度下对其进行了验证,结果表明该方法是可行的. 进而将该方法推广到计算表征体元（表征体元）尺度下的流-固相互作用,并对不同雷诺数（Re）下的多孔方柱绕流问题进行了模拟和验证.      

格子Boltzmann方法模拟多孔介质惯性流的边界条件改进

格子Boltzmann方法可以有效地模拟水动力学问题,边界处理方法的选择对于可靠的模拟计算至关重要.本文基于多松弛时间格子Boltzmann模型开展了不同边界条件下,周期对称性结构和不规则结构中流体流动模拟,阐述了不同边界条件的精度和适用范围. 此外,引入一种混合式边界处理方法来模拟多孔介质惯性流, 结果表明:对于周期性对称结构流动模拟,体力格式边界条件和压力边界处理方法是等效的,两者都能精确地捕捉流体流动特点; 而对于非周期性不规则结构,两种边界处理方法并不等价,体力格式边界条件只适用于周期性结构;由于广义化周期性边界条件忽略了垂直主流方向上流体与固体格点的碰撞作用,同样不适合处理不规则模型;体力-压力混合式边界格式能够用来模拟周期性或非周期性结构流体流动,在模拟多孔介质流体惯性流时,比压力边界条件有更大的应用优势,可以获得更大的雷诺数且能保证计算的准确性.      

多孔介质中的粘性指进与分形学

本文概述了多孔介质中粘性指进现象的研究成果,并对Ｈｅｌｅ－Ｓｈａｗ装置的模拟和三维多孔介质实体的实验进行了评价;介绍了分形学的基本概念以及近年来在指进研究中的应用．最后,对研究粘性指进与分形学的关系提出了一些建议．      

Pore-Scale Simulation of Shear Thinning Fluid Flow Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

The present work attempts to identify the roles of flow and geometric variables on the scaling factor which is a necessary parameter for modeling the apparent viscosity of non-Newtonian fluid in porous media. While idealizing the porous media microstructure as arrays of circular and square cylinders, the present study uses multi-relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method to conduct pore-scale simulation of shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid flow. Variation in the size and inclusion ratio of the solid cylinders generates wide range of porous media with varying porosity and permeability. The present study also used stochastic reconstruction technique to generate realistic, random porous microstructures. For each case, pore-scale fluid flow simulation enables the calculation of equivalent viscosity based on the computed shear rate within the pores. It is observed that the scaling factor has strong dependence on porosity, permeability, tortuosity and the percolation threshold, while approaching the maximum value at the percolation threshold porosity. The present investigation quantifies and proposes meaningful correlations between the scaling factor and the macroscopic properties of the porous media.