Modeling and Numerical Simulations of Immiscible Compressible Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media by the Concept of Global Pressure

A new formulation is presented for the modeling of immiscible compressible two-phase flow in porous media taking into account gravity, capillary effects, and heterogeneity. The formulation is intended for the numerical simulation of multidimensional flows and is fully equivalent to the original equations, contrary to the one introduced in Chavent and Jaffré (Mathematical Models and Finite Elements for Reservoir Simulation, 1986). The main feature of this formulation is the introduction of a global pressure. The resulting equations are written in a fractional flow formulation and lead to a coupled system which consists of a nonlinear parabolic (the global pressure equation) and a nonlinear diffusion–convection one (the saturation equation) which can be efficiently solved numerically. A finite volume method is used to solve the global pressure equation and the saturation equation for the water and gas phase in the context of gas migration through engineered and geological barriers for a deep repository for radioactive waste. Numerical results for the one-dimensional problem are presented. The accuracy of the fully equivalent fractional flow model is demonstrated through comparison with the simplified model already developed in Chavent and Jaffré (Mathematical Models and Finite Elements for Reservoir Simulation, 1986).     

Gas Migration in Highly Water-Saturated Opalinus Clay Microfractures Using a Two-Phase TRT LBM

Hydrogen gas migration modeling through water-saturated engineering barriers and the host rock of a deep geological repository for radioactive waste is of concern for safety assessment of such facilities. A two-phase two-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model using the Rothman and Keller approach was parallelized on graphic processing units to simulate hydrogen gas migration in a 3D image obtained by X-ray microtomography of Opalinus clay microfractures. A dimensional analysis combined with a grid refinement analysis was carried out to set the model parameters to reproduce the realistic viscous, capillary and inertial forces of the natural system. Relative permeabilities curves were first calculated in a simple regular fracture with different initial two-phase configurations. We observed that segmented gas flow configurations led to a drop in the relative gas permeability by two orders of magnitude as compared to parallel flow configuration. The model was then applied to 4\(\times \) refined 3D images. For lower water saturation values (\(0.5 \le S_\mathrm{w} < 0.7\)), hydrogen gas migrated through continuous gas paths oriented in the flow direction. At high water saturation values (\(S_\mathrm{w}\ge 0.7\)), the relative gas permeability dropped to zero because the hydrogen phase segmented into gas pockets that were stuck in local narrow throats of the clay fracture. The study pointed out that the high capillary forces prevented the gas bubbles from distorting themselves to pass through these narrow paths.     

Heat Transfer and Gas Flow through Feed Stream within Horizontal Pipe

In the feeding process, the feed stream forms a moving packed bed of particle from the feedstock in the feed channel. When the feeding is at emergency interruption especially in the case of flooding and uncontrollable discharge, the hot gases from reactor would infiltrate into the feed stream. The high heat penetration into feed stream would affect the feeder performance. In this paper, transient thermal response of feed stream within horizontal pipe is described mathematically with a gas flow and heat transfer model. Influences of varied factors on the thermal penetration into feed stream are examined for different conditions. The temperature of the packed-bed particles and the gas velocity distribution curves are obtained for the feeding service at interruption and at normal operating conditions. The numerical results show that the thermal penetration to the packed-bed particles by the seepage flow fluid is high only in the position near the gas entrance. The thermal penetration depth tends to increase with the seepage flow velocity and decrease with feeding rate. There is no appreciable thermal penetration in the feed stream when the feeding service is at normal running. The operating conditions and the porosity of solid bed have importance effects on the gas velocity and temperature field in the thermal penetration zone. A test system is set up to determine the transient thermal response experimentally for the packed bed of particles within a horizontal pipe. The model results are found to compare favorably with the experimental data.     

煤层气在非饱和水流阶段的非定常渗流摄动解

煤层甲烷由煤层的割理裂隙系统流入生产井一般经历：单相水流、非饱和流和气、水两相饱和流三个阶段，在非饱和流阶段，储层压力降至临界解吸压力之后，储存在煤基质中的吸附气体少量被解吸出来形成互不连续的气泡并阻止水的流动，含气量尚未达到饱和程度。同时煤层甲烷运移包含渗流场、变形场和应力场的动态耦合过程。本文考虑渗流过程中水-气两相不溶混流体与固体耦合作用，建立了非饱和水流阶段非定常渗流问题的流固耦合数学模型，对该强非线性一维数学模型采用摄动法和积分变换法进行解析求解，并讨论了其压力动态特性，分析了压力随饱和度S及时间t变化的规律和气相及耦合作用的影响，这些研究对煤层气、石油和天然气的开采等地下工程领域具有一定的指导意义。     

Longitudinal instability of slurry pipeline flow

This paper deals with the flow of solid/liquid mixtures through long-distance pipelines. Such flows can be destabilized by the formation of local plugs which may impede or even block the flow. Plugs may develop at the interface between regions of different mean concentration. The driving force for the development of such plugs is the existence of local gradients of the axial flux of solids.A mathematical model is developed which describes this mode of plug formation in slurry pipelines. Several assumptions and approximations enable us to reduce the 3D continuity equation of the solid particles to an effective 1D-equation that contains a concentration-dependent flux function. The latter equation is solved numerically.Illustrative calculations lead to the conclusion that the accumulation of material in a plug does not continue without limit but instead levels off at values that are pumpable under most practical conditions, provided that a certain margin of overdesign is in place.     

Local gas and liquid phase velocity measurement in a miniature stirred vessel using PIV combined with a new image processing algorithm

A method which combines standard two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) with a new image processing algorithm has been developed to measure the average local gas bubble velocities, as well as the local velocities of the liquid phase, within small stirred vessel reactors. The technique was applied to measurements in a gas–liquid high throughput experimentation (HTE) vessel of 45 mm diameter, but it is equally suited to measurements in larger scale reactors. For the measurement of liquid velocities, 3 μm latex seeding particles were used. For gas velocity measurements, a separate experiment was conducted which involved doping the liquid phase with fluorescent Rhodamine dye to allow the gas–liquid interfaces to be identified. The analysis of raw PIV images enabled the detection of bubbles within the laser plane, their differentiation from obscuring bubbles in front of the laser plane, and their use in lieu of tracer particles for gas velocity analysis using cross-correlation methods. The accuracy of the technique was verified by measuring the velocity of a bubble rising in a vertical glass column. The new method enabled detailed velocity fields of both phases to be obtained in an air–water system. The overall flow patterns obtained showed a good qualitative agreement with previous work in large scale vessels. The downward liquid velocities above the impeller were greatly reduced by the addition of the gas, and significant differences between the flow patterns of the two-phases were observed.     

Three-phase upward flow in a vertical pipe

In this paper we develop an approach to design a three-phase, gas–solid–liquid flow system that transports pneumatically scarified solid particles, including sticky ones, through a vertical pipe. The proposed system permits the introduction and maintenance of a liquid film that coats the pipe’s inner wall and acts as a lubricant that ensures sticky particles continue to move upward without permanently adhering to the pipe wall. The system’s operating conditions fall within the boundaries of the annular dispersed region on a typical flow pattern map of vertical flow of a gas–liquid mixture. High gas superficial velocities combined with low liquid superficial velocities characterize such a region. A combination of a modified one-dimensional, two-fluid annular dispersed flow model and a one-dimensional pneumatic conveying model is shown to describe this transport process satisfactorily. Solution of the combined models produces all the necessary design parameters including power requirements and superficial velocities of the two-fluid media needed to transport a given amount of solid particles. Results of model calculations are compared with rare three-phase flow data obtained prior to the development of the present model, by an independent experimental team that used the physical conditions of the present approach. Reasonable agreement justifies the use of the combined model for engineering design purposes.     

固体颗粒对沟槽湍流边界层影响的实验研究

本文采用粒子图像测速技术(particles image velocimetry, PIV)研究固体颗粒对放置在平板湍流边界层中的平壁和沟槽壁面减阻效果的影响. 实验对清水和加入粒径为155 μm聚苯乙烯颗粒的流法向二维速度场信息进行采集, 对不同工况下的平均速度剖面、雷诺应力和湍流度等统计量进行对比, 分析流体在边界层中的行为. 运用空间局部平均结构函数提取了不同工况湍流边界层喷射?扫掠行为的空间拓扑结构并进行比较. 结果发现, 在不同的壁面条件下, 粒子加入后的对数律区中无量纲速度均略大于清水组, 雷诺切应力有所降低, 湍流度有所减弱. 对于不同流场速度下的沟槽而言, 颗粒的加入均降低了壁面附近的阻力, 而颗粒单独作用于光滑壁面的减阻效果并不明显. 加入粒子后的相干结构数目有所增加, 法向脉动速度下降. 沟槽壁面附近的相干结构数目有所增加, 法向脉动速度在自由来流速度较大时有所上升, 在速度较小时有所下降. 这表明不同减阻状况下的沟槽均能将大涡破碎成更多的涡, 并且粒子的加入强化了这种破碎作用.      

Gas–liquid two phase flow measurement method based on combination instrument of turbine flowmeter and conductance sensor

In order to solve the flowrate measurement problem of gas–liquid two phase flow widely existing in gas wells of Daqing oil field in China, a new method has been developed, which is based on the combination instrument of turbine flowmeter and conductance sensor with petal type concentrating flow diverter. The turbine and conductance signals under 104 different flow conditions have been acquired through oil–gas–water three phase flow loop experimental facility. To determine the flow pattern in measurement channel, attractor morphologic characteristics are extracted from the conductance signals. For the total flowrate measurement, based on the turbine fluctuant signals of gas–liquid two phase flow, a statistical model with the average error of 7.9% is set up. With regard to the water cut measurement, the characteristics in time and frequency domains are extracted from the fluctuant conductance signals, and then employing the Support Vector Machine (SVM) soft measurement model used in high-dimension data fitting, the water cut prediction is realized with the average error of 0.038. The results show that the combination instrument of turbine flowmeter and conductance sensor with petal type concentrating flow diverter would be useful in measuring the total flowrate and water cut of gas–liquid two phase flow in gas production wells.     

Is vorticity-banding due to an elastic instability?

A possible mechanism for the vorticity-banding instability is proposed on the basis of experiments with colloidal rod-like particles that exhibit an isotropic–nematic phase transition. The proposed mechanism is similar to the well-known elastic instability for polymer systems that is due to nonuniform elastic deformation of polymer chains as a result of gradients in the local shear rate (the Weissenberg effect). However, the role of polymer chains is now played by inhomogeneities that exist in systems exhibiting vorticity banding. For the rod-like colloidal system investigated here, inhomogeneities are formed during the early stages of phase separation. Nonuniform deformation of these inhomogeneities are thus proposed to lead to hoop stresses which give rise to banded structures where there is secondary, weakly rolling flow within each of the bands. Many of the features found experimentally for the rod-like colloidal system can be understood on the basis of this proposed mechanism. For different types of systems that also show vorticity banding, inhomogeneities can be identified, which might lead to vorticity banding for the same reasons as for the rod-like colloidal systems studied here.     

Effect of Elevated Velocity of Particles in Groundwater Flow and Its Role in Colloid-facilitated Transport of Radionuclides in Underground Medium

Colloid-facilitated transport of radionuclides by groundwater can increase the level of ecological hazard from radioactive contaminant migration in geological medium. The reason for this is that the migration velocity of a radioactive colloid can be higher than that of radionuclides carried by the groundwater as a solute. On the basis of their field and laboratory studies, a few researchers have concluded that the velocity of the colloid can even exceed the interstitial velocity of the groundwater by a few times. A theoretical analysis of this effect is carried out in this article. The analysis is based on the assumption that the only mechanism responsible for the effect is caused by a redistribution of the colloid in a cross section of the groundwater flow in a representative volume to such domains of the cross section where the local velocity of the flow is higher than the average velocity over the whole cross section. This redistribution can be caused by drift forces arising as a result of the Magnus effect. The influence of these drift forces on a particle’s movement is considered in two extreme cases; that of relatively large and relatively small colloid particles. Particles are considered relatively small if the thermal motion of water molecules exerts a decisive influence on the particles’ movement. Otherwise the particles are considered as being relatively large. It is shown that in the case of relatively large particles this redistribution can be caused by the instability of their movement. The redistribution in the case of relatively small particles can be caused by an influence of the drift forces on characteristics of Brownian motion. It follows from the results of the theoretical analysis that an influence of the drift forces in both cases does not lead to an increase in the particles’ migration velocity at near-horizontal direction of the groundwater flow. Data from experimental studies of the elevated velocity of colloids in porous medium are analyzed. It is shown that some findings of colloidal migration velocity exceeding the interstitial velocity of the groundwater are a result of misinterpretation of experimental results.     

Dynamic coupling of fluid and structural mechanics for simulating particle motion and interaction in high speed compressible gas particle laden flow

In this work, structural finite element analyses of particles moving and interacting within high speed compressible flow are directly coupled to computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer analyses to provide more detailed and improved simulations of particle laden flow under these operating conditions. For a given solid material model, stresses and displacements throughout the solid body are determined with the particle–particle contact following an element to element local spring force model and local fluid induced forces directly calculated from the finite volume flow solution. Plasticity and particle deformation common in such a flow regime can be incorporated in a more rigorous manner than typical discrete element models where structural conditions are not directly modeled. Using the developed techniques, simulations of normal collisions between two 1 mm radius particles with initial particle velocities of 50–150 m/s are conducted with different levels of pressure driven gas flow moving normal to the initial particle motion for elastic and elastic–plastic with strain hardening based solid material models. In this manner, the relationships between the collision velocity, the material behavior models, and the fluid flow and the particle motion and deformation can be investigated. The elastic–plastic material behavior results in post collision velocities 16–50% of their pre-collision values while the elastic-based particle collisions nearly regained their initial velocity upon rebound. The elastic–plastic material models produce contact forces less than half of those for elastic collisions, longer contact times, and greater particle deformation. Fluid flow forces affect the particle motion even at high collision speeds regardless of the solid material behavior model. With the elastic models, the collision force varied little with the strength of the gas flow driver. For the elastic–plastic models, the larger particle deformation and the resulting increasingly asymmetric loading lead to growing differences in the collision force magnitudes and directions as the gas flow strength increased. The coupled finite volume flow and finite element structural analyses provide a capability to capture the interdependencies between the interaction of the particles, the particle deformation, the fluid flow and the particle motion.     

Pore-Scale Imaging and Analysis of Wettability Order,Trapping and Displacement in Three-Phase Flow in Porous Media with Various Wettabilities

Three-phase flow in porous media is encountered in many applications including subsurface carbon dioxide storage, enhanced oil recovery, groundwater remediation and the design of microfluidic devices. However, the pore-scale physics that controls three-phase flow under capillary dominated conditions is still not fully understood. Recent advances in three-dimensional pore-scale imaging have provided new insights into three-phase flow. Based on these findings, this paper describes the key pore-scale processes that control flow and trapping in a three-phase system, namely wettability order, spreading and wetting layers, and double/multiple displacement events. We show that in a porous medium containing water, oil and gas, the behaviour is controlled by wettability, which can either be water-wet, weakly oil-wet or strongly oil-wet, and by gas–oil miscibility. We provide evidence that, for the same wettability state, the three-phase pore-scale events are different under near-miscible conditions—where the gas–oil interfacial tension is ≤?1 mN/m—compared to immiscible conditions. In a water-wet system, at immiscible conditions, water is the most-wetting phase residing in the corners of the pore space, gas is the most non-wetting phase occupying the centres, while oil is the intermediate-wet phase spreading in layers sandwiched between water and gas. This fluid configuration allows for double capillary trapping, which can result in more gas trapping than for two-phase flow. At near-miscible conditions, oil and gas appear to become neutrally wetting to each other, preventing oil from spreading in layers; instead, gas and oil compete to occupy the centre of the larger pores, while water remains connected in wetting layers in the corners. This allows for the rapid production of oil since it is no longer confined to movement in thin layers. In a weakly oil-wet system, at immiscible conditions, the wettability order is oil–water–gas, from most to least wetting, promoting capillary trapping of gas in the pore centres by oil and water during water-alternating-gas injection. This wettability order is altered under near-miscible conditions as gas becomes the intermediate-wet phase, spreading in layers between water in the centres and oil in the corners. This fluid configuration allows for a high oil recovery factor while restricting gas flow in the reservoir. Moreover, we show evidence of the predicted, but hitherto not reported, wettability order in strongly oil-wet systems at immiscible conditions, oil–gas–water, from most to least wetting. At these conditions, gas progresses through the pore space in disconnected clusters by double and multiple displacements; therefore, the injection of large amounts of water to disconnect the gas phase is unnecessary. We place the analysis in a practical context by discussing implications for carbon dioxide storage combined with enhanced oil recovery before suggesting topics for future work.

     

A numerical investigation into the solids phase chromatography using a combined continuous and discrete approach

Solids phase chromatography for particle classification is based on different retention times of particles with different properties when they are elutriated through a confined geometry.This work aims at a fundamental understanding of such a technology by using the combined continuous and discrete method.A packed bed is employed as the model confined geometry.The numerical method is compared first with experimental observations,followed by a parametric analysis of the effects on the flow hydrodynamics and solids behaviour of various parameters including the number of injected particles,the superficial gas velocity,the contact stiffness and the diameter ratio of the packed column to the packed particles.The results show that the modelling captures some important features of the flow of an injected pulse of fine particles in a packed bed. An increase in the number of injected particles or the superficial gas velocity reduces the retention time,whereas the contact stiffness does not show much effect over the range of 5×102 to5×104 N/m.It is also found that the effect on the retention time of the diameter ratio of the packed column to the packed particles seems complex showing a non-monotonous dependence.     

Visualization of turbulence and internal waves in a stratified fluid

A method for visualizing the velocity field in stratified flow by means of tracer particles made from wooden sawdust is described. The wood particles absorb water and salinity and may match the local density of stratified salt water.     

Hydrodynamics of a bubble-induced inverse fluidized bed reactor with a nanobubble tray

This paper reports on the hydrodynamics of a bubble-induced inverse fluidized bed reactor, using a nanobubble tray gas distributor, where solid particles are fluidized only by an upward gas flow. Increasing the gas velocity, the fixed layer of particles initially packed at the top of the liquid starts to move downwards, due to the rise of bubbles in this system, and then gradually expands downwards until fully suspended. The axial local pressure drops and standard deviation were examined to delineate the flow regime comprehensively under different superficial gas velocities. Four flow regimes (fixed bed regime, initial fluidization regime, expanded regime, and post-homogeneous regime) were observed and three transitional gas velocities (the initial fluidization velocity, minimum fluidization velocity, and homogeneous fluidization velocity) were identified to demarcate the flow regime. Three correlations were developed for the three transitional velocities. As the fine bubbles generated from the nanobubble tray gas distributor are well distributed in the entire column, the bed expansion process of the particles is relatively steady.     

Multiscale evaluation method of the drag effect on shallow water flow through coastal forests based on 3D numerical simulations

This study presents a method for determining the drag parameter in the 2D shallow water (SW) equation for flows through a coastal forest by conducting a series of 3D numerical simulations (3D NSs). Following the theory of multiscale modeling, an evaluation method procedure is proposed. We first prepare a local test domain that contains a sufficient number of trees to constitute part of a coastal forest. Then, 3D NSs are conducted in this test domain with various inflow conditions. Based on the corresponding results, the momentum losses over the test domain are converted into the drag parameter of the global SW equation. A response surface of the drag parameter is constructed as a function of the flow conditions. The stabilized finite element method is employed for both the local and the global NSs, and the phase-field method is utilized to represent 3D free surfaces. Comparisons between the 2D SW calculation results and the 3D NS results are also performed to verify the validity of the proposed method.     

Modelling of wetting and drying of shallow water using artificial porosity

A new method for wetting and drying in two‐dimensional shallow water flow models is proposed. The method is closely related to the artificial porosity method used by different authors in Boussinesq‐type models, but is further extended for use in a semi‐implicit (ADI‐type) time integration scheme. The method is implemented in the simulation model WAQUA using general boundary fitted coordinates and is applied to realistic schematization for a portion of the river Meuse in the Netherlands. A large advantage of the artificial porosity method over traditionally used methods on the basis of ‘screens’ is a strongly reduced sensitivity of model results. Instead of blocking all water transport in grid points where the water level becomes small, as in screen‐based methods, the flow is gradually closed off. Small changes in parameters such as the initial conditions or bottom topography therefore no longer lead to large changes in the model results. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.