Upscaling LBM-TPM simulation approach of Darcy and non-Darcy fluid flow in deformable,heterogeneous porous media

This paper presents a numerical approach for the simulation of fluid flow through porous media by proposing a theoretical and numerical meso-to-macro multiscale framework, which combines the advantages of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with the continuum Theory of Porous Media (TPM) to efficiently and accurately model fluid transport in heterogeneous porous media. In particular, LBM presents an alternative to experiments by studying the flow from a mesoscopic perspective, which in turn, allows the derivation of the material parameters needed for simulating the flow in the macroscopic TPM model. In this work, a meso-macro hierarchic upscaling scheme is applied to investigate the deformation-dependent intrinsic permeability properties and the Darcy/non-Darcy fluid flow regime. Concerning the mesoscale, the intrinsic permeability of the porous domain is computed by means of the LBM model at the first stage. Subsequently, deformation of the medium takes place in furtherance of determining the relation of the aforementioned deformation dependency. Thereupon, these findings are input into the TPM model in order to compute the primary unknown variables, where special focus is laid on the stability challenges in the compaction and near compaction states. With respect to the criteria of non-Darcy fluid flow, the conditions of its onset, i.e. the induced pressure gradient and mean fluid flow velocity, are computed as well using the LBM solver and conveyed afterwards to the macroscopic TPM model. Herein, the non-Darcy intrinsic permeability has been investigated in the TPM approach based on the Forchheimer equation. Simulations done on a synthetic porous micro-structure show that the combined framework proved to stand well between the two approaches.     

页岩气在超低渗介质中的渗流行为

基于页岩气藏复杂孔隙结构和页岩气在纳米孔隙表面的滑脱和吸附-解吸附等现象,通过引入表观渗透率,修正Darcy渗流模型,得到了页岩气渗流本构方程. 将计算结果与Darcy模型计算结果进行了比照,结果表明,在产量定常情形下,基于非Darcy渗流模型得到的井底压力高于Darcy流结果; Darcy流模型得到的压力衰减速度较快,改进后的渗流模型更能准确描述与表征页岩气渗流过程;研究结果可为页岩气藏的经营与管理提供基础参数.      

A unified approach to simulation and upscaling of single‐phase flow through vuggy carbonates

Numerical modeling of flow through vuggy porous media, mainly vuggy carbonates, is a challenging endeavor. Firstly, because the presence of vugs can significantly alter the effective porosity and permeability of the medium. Secondly, because of the co‐existence of porous and free flow regions within the medium and the uncertainties in defining the exact boundary between them. Traditionally, such heterogeneous systems are modeled by the coupled Darcy–Stokes equations. However, numerical modeling of flow through vuggy porous media using coupled Darcy–Stokes equations poses several numerical challenges particularly with respect to specification of correct interface condition between the porous and free‐flow regions. Hence, an alternative method, a more unified approach for modeling flows through vuggy porous media, the Stokes–Brinkman model, is proposed here. It is a single equation model with variable coefficients, which can be used for both porous and free‐flow regions. This also makes the requirement for interface condition redundant. Thus, there is an obvious benefit of using the Stokes–Brinkman equation, which can be reduced to Stokes or Darcy equation by the appropriate choice of parameters. At the same time, the Stokes–Brinkman equation provides a smooth transition between porous and free‐flow region, thereby taking care of the associated uncertainties. A numerical treatment for upscaling Stokes–Brinkman model is presented as an approach to use Stokes–Brinkman model for multi‐phase flow. Numerical upscaling methodology is validated by analyzing the error norm for numerical pressure convergence. Stokes–Brinkman single equation model is tested on a series of realistic data sets, and the results are compared with traditional coupled Darcy–Stokes model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting the Onset of Inertial Effects in Sandstone Rocks

This study presents a method to determine the onset of inertial effects at the microscopic level, to distinguish between Darcy and non-Darcy flow regions within porous media at the pore level, and to quantify the effects of retained polymer on gas mobility. Capillary pressure and polymer flood experiments were conducted using Elgin and Okesa sandstone samples. The pore-size distributions were used to study the high-velocity flow effects. A modified capillary-orifice model was used to determine the non-Darcy flow effects at the pore level, with and without residual polymer.The overall flow behavior at any flow rate may be described as the average of all contributions from the Darcy and the non-Darcy terms in all pores. Results of this study suggest that the conventional Reynolds number may lead to incorrect analysis of flow behavior when evaluating non-Darcy flow effects in porous media. The Forchheimer number, defined as the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces, is found more adequate for analyzing microscopic flow behavior in porous media.     

A New Non-Darcy Flow Model for Low-Velocity Multiphase Flow in Tight Reservoirs

The pore and pore-throat sizes of shale and tight rock formations are on the order of tens of nanometers. The fluid flow in such small pores is significantly affected by walls of pores and pore-throats. This boundary layer effect on fluid flow in tight rocks has been investigated through laboratory work on capillary tubes. It is observed that low permeability is associated with large boundary layer effect on fluid flow. The experimental results from a single capillary tube are extended to a bundle of tubes and finally to porous media of tight formations. A physics-based, non-Darcy low-velocity flow equation is derived to account for the boundary layer effect of tight reservoirs by adding a non-Darcy coefficient term. This non-Darcy equation describes the fluid flow more accurately for tight oil reservoir with low production rate and low pressure gradient. Both analytical and numerical solutions are obtained for the new non-Darcy flow model. First, a Buckley–Leverett-type analytical solution is derived with this non-Darcy flow equation. Then, a numerical model has been developed for implementing this non-Darcy flow model for accurate simulation of multidimensional porous and fractured tight oil reservoirs. Finally, the numerical studies on an actual field example in China demonstrate the non-negligible effect of boundary layer on fluid flow in tight formations.     

Forced convection of a power-law fluid in a porous channel – numerical solutions

A detailed numerical study of laminar forced convection in a porous channel which contains a fibrous medium saturated with a power-law fluid was performed. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer results are presented for a configuration that has uniform heat flux or uniform temperature heating at the walls. The flow in the porous medium was modeled using the modified Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for power law fluids in which the non-Darcy effects of inertia and boundary were considered. Parametric studies were conducted to examine the effects of Darcy number, power law index, inertia parameter and Prandtl number. The results indicate that when the power law index is decreased, the velocity gradient near the walls increases but these effects are reduced gradually as the Darcy number decreases until the Darcy regime (Da≤10⁻⁶) is reached in which case the effects of power law index become negligible. As the power law index is decreased, the thermal boundary layer thickness decreases significantly only in the non-Darcy regime. Consequently, as the power law index decreases, the fully developed Nusselt number increases considerably in the non-Darcy regime whereas in the Darcy regime the change in Nusselt number is very small. As the Prandtl number increases, the local Nusselt number increases and this effect is more significant for shear thinning fluids (n<1.0). Received on 2 March 1998     

Non-Darcy double-diffusive natural convection in axisymmetric fluid saturated porous cavities

Double-diffusive natural convection in a fluid saturated porous medium has been investigated using the finite element method. A generalised porous medium model is used to study both Darcy and non-Darcy flow regimes in an axisymmetric cavity. Results indicate that the Darcy number should be a separate parameter to understand flow characteristics in non-Darcy regime. The influence of porosity on heat and mass transfer is significant and the transport rates may differ by 25% or more, at higher Darcy and Rayleigh numbers. When compared with the Darcy and other specialised models of Brinkman and Forchheimer, the present generalised model predicts the least heat and mass transfer rates. It is also observed that an increase in radius ratio leads to higher Nusselt and Sherwood numbers along the inner wall.     

Prediction of Non-Darcy Coefficients for Inertial Flows Through the Castlegate Sandstone Using Image-Based Modeling

Near wellbore flow in high rate gas wells shows the deviation from Darcy??s law that is typical for high Reynolds number flows, and prediction requires an accurate estimate of the non-Darcy coefficient (?? factor). This numerical investigation addresses the issues of predicting non-Darcy coefficients for a realistic porous media. A CT-image of real porous medium (Castlegate Sandstone) was obtained at a resolution of 7.57???m. The segmented image provides a voxel map of pore-grain space that is used as the computational domain for the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based flow simulations. Results are obtained for pressure-driven flow in the above-mentioned porous media in all directions at increasing Reynolds number to capture the transition from the Darcy regime as well as quantitatively predict the macroscopic parameters such as absolute permeability and ?? factor (Forchheimer coefficient). Comparison of numerical results against experimental data and other existing correlations is also presented. It is inferred that for a well-resolved realistic porous media images, LBM can be a useful computational tool for predicting macroscopic porous media properties such as permeability and ?? factor.     

Simulation of Coupled Viscous and Porous Flow Problems

Theoretical and numerical formulations are presented for the conjugate problem involving incompressible flow and flow in a saturated porous medium. The major focus of the work is the development of a generally applicable finite element method for the simulation of both fixed interface and evolving porous interface problems. The available alternatives for coupling Darcy and non-Darcy models to the Navier-Stokes equations have been studied and evaluated in a mixed finite element framework. Questions regarding convergence of the finite element method for porous flow models have been addressed. Numerical experiments on simple flow geometries have revealed the shortcomings of both the Darcy and Brinkman models. Application of the more realistic models to practical, multidimensional, flow studies has also been demonstrated.     

Numerical Simulation of Single-Phase and Multiphase Non-Darcy Flow in Porous and Fractured Reservoirs

A numerical method as well as a theoretical study of non-Darcy fluid flow through porous and fractured reservoirs is described. The non-Darcy behavior is handled in a three-dimensional, multiphase flow reservoir simulator, while the model formulation incorporates the Forchheimer equation for describing single-phase or multiphase non-Darcy flow and displacement. The non-Darcy flow through a fractured reservoir is handled using a general dual-continuum approach. The numerical scheme has been verified by comparing its results against those of analytical methods. Numerical solutions are used to obtain some insight into the physics of non-Darcy flow and displacement in reservoirs. In addition, several type curves are provided for well-test analyses of non-Darcy flow to demonstrate a methodology for modeling this type of flow in porous and fractured rocks, including flow in petroleum and geothermal reservoirs.     

Non-Darcy effects on convective boundary layer flow past a semi-infinite vertical plate in saturated porous media

The composite effects of viscosity, porosity, buoyancy parameter, thermal conductivity ratio and non-Darcy effects of Brinkman friction and Forscheimmer quadratic drag on the mixed convection boundary layer flow past a semi-infinite plate in a fully-saturated porous regime are theoretically and numerically investigated using Keller’s implicit finite-difference technique and a double-shooting Runge-Kutta method. The Brinkman Forcheimer-extended Darcy model is implemented in the hydrodynamic boundary layer equation. The effects of the various non-dimensional thermofluid parameters, viz Grashof number, Darcy number, and Forchheimer number, and also porosity, thermal conductivity and viscosity parameters on the velocity and temperature fields are discussed. Computations for both numerical schemes are made where possible and found to be in excellent agreement.     

A general treatment for non-Darcy film condensation within a porous medium in the presence of gravity and forced flow

Non-Darcy film condensation over a vertical flat plate within a porous medium is considered. The Forchheimer extended Darcy model is adopted to account for the non-Darcy effects on film condensation in the presence of both gravity and externally forced flow. A general similarity transformation is proposed upon introducing a modified Peclet number based on the total velocity of condensate, resulting from both gravitational force and externally forced flow. This general treatment makes it possible to obtain all possible similarity solutions including the asymptotic results in the four different limiting regimes, namely, Darcy forced convection regime, Forchheimer forced convection regime, Darcy body force predominant regime and Forchheimer body force predominant regime. Appropriate dimensionless groups for distinguishing these asymptotic regimes are found to be the micro-scale Grashof and Reynolds numbers based on the square root of the permeability of the porous medium. Correspondingly, the non-Darcy effect on the heat transfer rate are investigated in terms of these micro-scale dimensionless numbers.     

Analysis of Multiphase Non-Darcy Flow in Porous Media

Recent laboratory studies and analyses (Lai et al. Presented at the 2009 Rocky Mountain Petroleum Technology Conference, 14–16 April, Denver, CO, 2009) have shown that the Barree and Conway model is able to describe the entire range of relationships between flow rate and potential gradient from low- to high-flow rates through porous media. A Buckley and Leverett type analytical solution is derived for non-Darcy displacement of immiscible fluids in porous media, in which non-Darcy flow is described using the Barree and Conway model. The comparison between Forchheimer and Barree and Conway non-Darcy models is discussed. We also present a general mathematical and numerical model for incorporating the Barree and Conway model in a general reservoir simulator to simulate multiphase non-Darcy flow in porous media. As an application example, we use the analytical solution to verify the numerical solution for and to obtain some insight into one-dimensional non-Darcy displacement of two immiscible fluids with the Barree and Conway model. The results show how non-Darcy displacement is controlled not only by relative permeability, but also by non-Darcy coefficients, characteristic length, and injection rates. Overall, this study provides an analysis approach for modeling multiphase non-Darcy flow in reservoirs according to the Barree and Conway model.     

Effects of Chemical Reaction and Double Dispersion on Non-Darcy Free Convection Heat and Mass Transfer

In this article, the effects of chemical reaction and double dispersion on non-Darcy free convection heat and mass transfer from semi-infinite, impermeable vertical wall in a fluid saturated porous medium are investigated. The Forchheimer extension (non-Darcy term) is considered in the flow equations, while the chemical reaction power–law term is considered in the concentration equation. The first order chemical reaction (n = 1) was used as an example of calculations. The Darcy and non-Darcy flow, temperature and concentration fields in this study are observed to be governed by complex interactions among dispersion and natural convection mechanisms. The governing set of partial differential equations were non-dimensionalized and reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations for which Runge–Kutta-based numerical technique were implemented. Numerical results for the detail of the velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles as well as heat transfer rates (Nusselt number) and mass transfer rates (Sherwood number) are presented in graphs.     

Dual-Porosity Coarse-Scale Modeling and Simulation of Highly Heterogeneous Geomodels

Accurate upscaling of highly heterogeneous subsurface reservoirs remains a challenge in the context of modeling of flow and transport. In this work, we address this challenge with emphasis on the representation of the displacement efficiency in coarse-scale modeling. We propose a dual-porosity upscaling approach to handle displacement calculations in high resolution and highly heterogeneous formations. In this approach, the pore space is arranged into two levels of porosity based on flow contribution, and a dual-porosity dual-permeability flow model is adapted for coarse-scale flow simulation. The approach uses fine-scale streamline information to transform a heterogeneous geomodel into a coarse dual-continuum model that preserves the global flow pathways adequately. The performance of the proposed technique is demonstrated for two heterogeneous reservoirs using both black oil (waterflooding) and compositional (gas injection) modeling approaches. We demonstrate that the coarse dual-porosity models predict the breakthrough times accurately and reproduce the post-breakthrough responses adequately. This is in contrast to conventional single-porosity upscaling techniques that overestimate breakthrough times and displacement efficiencies (sweep). By preserving large-scale heterogeneities, coarse dual-porosity models are demonstrated to be significantly less sensitive to the level of upscaling, when compared to conventional single-porosity upscaling. Accordingly, the proposed upscaling approach is a relevant and suitable technique for upscaling of highly heterogeneous geomodels.     

BIOT’S CONSOLIDATION ANALYSIS FOR CYLINDRICAL SOIL-SAMPLE BASED ON HANSBO’S FLOW1)

诸多黏性土渗流试验表明,在低水力梯度下渗流会出现明显偏离Darcy定律的现象. 为了分析渗流的非Darcy特性对固结过程 的影响,引入Hansbo渗流方程描述圆柱土样内的渗流,重新推导轴对称条件下的Biot固结方程,并给出方程的Crank--Nicolson有限 差分格式. 通过与Darcy渗流条件下轴对称Biot固结方程解析解的对比,验证计算方法的有效性. 然后分析Hansbo模型参数对圆柱 土样固结过程的影响. 计算结果表明：与Darcy渗流相比,Hansbo渗流会延缓圆柱土样的固结过程. 随着Hansbo渗流参数m或I¹的增大,在固结前期,Mandel--Cryer效应会更加显著,即孔隙水压力峰值将提高,且达到该峰值的时间 会延迟;在固结中后期,孔压消散滞后的现象也更加明显. 不过,Hansbo渗流对位移的影响很小.     

A Resistance Model for Newtonian and Power-Law Non-Newtonian Fluid Transport in Porous Media

A theoretical model based on the force balance between pressure, viscous force, and inertia force is proposed to predict the flow resistance of Newtonian and power-law non-Newtonian fluids through porous packed beds. The present model takes inertia effect into consideration, and the flow regime can be extended from Darcy flow to non-Darcy flow. It is demonstrated that the present model can predict most available experimental data well. The present results are also compared to the Ergun equation and other drag correlations.     

An integral treatment for non-Darcy free convection over a vertical flat plate and cone embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium

An integral treatment was proposed for analysis of non-Darcy free convection over a vertical flat plate and cone within a fluid-saturated porous medium. A flexible one-parameter family of third order polynomials was employed to cope with vast changes in the velocity and temperature profiles encountered in the Darcy flow limit through to the Forchheimer flow limit. Zero curvature requirement for the temperature profile at the wall was exploited as an auxiliary relation to determine the shape parameter. Comparison of the approximate results with the exact solution reveals a high performance of the present integral procedure for heat transfer rat prediction.     

动边界双重介质油藏低速非达西渗流试井模型

裂缝性油藏中基质岩块的渗透率一般很低,大量岩心测试实验证实在基质岩块内的液体渗流和在一定含水饱和度下的气体渗流将偏离达西渗流,往往出现低速非达西渗流,表现出启动压力梯度以及流体流动边界不断向外扩展等特殊现象。本文充分考虑启动压力梯度与动边界的影响,建立了微可压缩双重介质油藏低速非达西渗流的试井数学模型,对时间和空间变量...