Generation of Granular Media

A discrete reduced distance method to generate 2-D and 3-D granular porous media is presented. The main property of the method is to produce heterogeneous and/or anisotropic packed beds of joined grains with arbitrary shapes and optimum fitting (i.e., minimum porosity). The iterative generation process starts with the coarsest grain and adjusts the size and location of the next ones depending on the updated available space. Hence, grain size distribution cannot be specified directly but is merely the consequence of user defined input parameters. The latter consists of a set of randomly distributed initial points, a few typical predefined grain shapes as well as the minimum and maximum grain diameters. The simulated granular media can readily be processed by an appropriate mesh generator to allow for subsequent numerical solutions of differential equations.     

Reconstruction of Clastic Porous Media

In this paper we present a refinement of an algorithm (Pilotti, 1998) to generate three-dimensional granular media by deposition of spherical grains in a viscous fluid. The proposed improvements allow the construction of clastic porous media made up of irregular grains, with controlled level of angularity, sorting and porosity. On the basis of visual comparison with prototypal cross sections and of computed two points correlation functions, we argue that the intergranular void spaces resulting from this procedure provide a satisfactory reproduction of the micro-geometry of several clean consolidated sandstones and can be used to explore the effect of void topology on the flow field properties.     

可压缩气体定常非Darcy渗流的流动分析及其应用

气体通过多孔介质的非Darcy流动具有广泛的工程应用背景，因此对多孔介质中的气体非Darcy流动进行流动分析有着非常重要的意义。然而，在通常的研究中，一般都将气体考虑为不可压缩流体，很少考虑气体的压缩性。对于高压气体以较高的速度通过多孔介质的情况，在进行流动分析时，不仅要考虑非Darcy效应，还必须考虑气体的压缩性。在本文中，对可压缩气体通过多孔介质的定常非Darcy流动进行了一维流动分析，得出了多孔介质中气体的压力分布和速度分布。还进一步给出了在高压差和高流速情况下，测定多孔介质材料渗透率和惯性系数的方法，以及多孔介质材料前后压力差与材料厚度的比Δp/L和材料有气流速度u1的解析关系。     

可变形多孔介质中的一维非定常耦合渗流

在Ｂｉｏｔ理论的基础上,考虑到可变形多孔介质的渗透系数依赖于孔隙变形的特点,建立了耦合渗流问题的基本方程;用初始层校正法求出了一维非定常耦合渗流问题的摄动解;实例计算表明,耦合分析与非耦合分析之间的判别较大,因此耦合效应不能忽略。     

Convective Flows on Reactive Surfaces in Porous Media

A model for the convective flow in a fluidsaturated porous medium containing a reactive component is considered. This component undergoes an exothermic reaction (modelled by a first order mechanism) on an impermeable bounding surface, the resulting heat released driving the convective flow. Large Rayleigh number flow near a stagnation point is treated in detail by first considering the steady states. Multiple solution branches and critical points arising from a hysteresis bifurcation are identified. The form that these solution branches take depends on whether or not the effects of reactant consumption are included. An initialvalue problem is then discussed. This shows that both the lower (slow reaction) and upper (fast reaction) solution branches are stable (and the ultimate state of the system). When the parameter values are such that there is no steady state, the solution develops a finitetime singularity, the nature of which is analysed.     

Acoustics of Rotating Deformable Saturated Porous Media

We investigate wave propagation in elastic porous media which are saturated by incompressible viscous Newtonian fluids when the porous media are in rotation with respect to a Galilean frame. The model is obtained by upscaling the flow at the pore scale. We use the method of multiple scale expansions which gives rigorously the macroscopic behaviour without any prerequisite on the form of the macroscopic equations. For Kibel numbers A A(1), the acoustic filtration law resembles a Darcys law, but with a conductivity which depends on the wave frequency and on the angular velocity. The bulk momentum balance shows new inertial terms which account for the convective and Coriolis accelerations. Three dispersive waves are pointed out. An investigation in the inertial flow regime shows that the two pseudo-dilatational waves have a cut-off frequency.     

The Role of Capillarity in Two-Phase Flow through Porous Media

When determining experimentally relative permeability and capillary pressure as a function of saturation, a self-consistent system of macroscopic equations, that includes Leverett's equation for capillary pressure, is required. In this technical note, such a system of equations, together with the conditions under which the equations apply, is formulated. With the aid of this system of equations, it is shown that, at the inlet boundary of a vertically oriented porous medium, static conditions pertain, and that potentials, because of the definition of potential, are equal in magnitude to pressures. Consequently, Leverett's equation is valid at the inlet boundary of the porous medium, provided cocurrent flow, or gravity-driven, countercurrent flow is taking place, and provided the porous medium is homogeneous. Moreover, it is demonstrated that Leverett's equation is valid for flow along the length of a vertically oriented porous medium, provided cocurrent flow, or gravity-driven, countercurrent flow is taking place, and provided the porous medium is homogeneous and there are no hydrodynamic effects. However, Leverett's equation is invalid for horizontal, steady-state, forced, countercurrent flow. When such flow is taking place, it is the sum of the pressures, and not the difference in pressures, which is related to capillary pressure.     

Stochastic Finite Element Analysis for Multiphase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media

This study is concerned with developing a two-dimensional multiphase model that simulates the movement of NAPL in heterogeneous aquifers. Heterogeneity is dealt with in a probabilistic sense by modeling the intrinsic permeability of the porous medium as a stochastic process. The deterministic finite element method is used to spatially discretize the multiphase flow equations. The intrinsic permeability is represented in the model via its Karhunen–Loeve expansion. This is a computationally expedient representation of stochastic processes by means of a discrete set of random variables. Further, the nodal unknowns, water phase saturations and water phase pressures, are represented by their stochastic spectral expansions. This representation involves an orthogonal basis in the space of random variables. The basis consists of orthogonal polynomial chaoses of consecutive orders. The relative permeabilities of water and oil phases, and the capillary pressure are expanded in the same manner, as well. For these variables, the set of deterministic coefficients multiplying the basis in their expansions is evaluated based on constitutive relationships expressing the relative permeabilities and the capillary pressure as functions of the water phase saturations. The implementation of the various expansions into the multiphase flow equations results in the formulation of discretized stochastic differential equations that can be solved for the deterministic coefficients appearing in the expansions representing the unknowns. This method allows the computation of the probability distribution functions of the unknowns for any point in the spatial domain of the problem at any instant in time. The spectral formulation of the stochastic finite element method used herein has received wide acceptance as a comprehensive framework for problems involving random media. This paper provides the application of this formalism to the problem of two-phase flow in a random porous medium.     

On Capillary Slowdown of Viscous Fingering in Immiscible Displacement in Porous Media

Hydrodynamic instability in immiscible porous media flows in the presence of capillarity is investigated here. The analysis and arguments presented here show that the slowdown of instabilities due to capillarity is usually very rapid which makes the flow almost, but not entirely, stable. The profiles of the stable and unstable waves in the far-field are characterized using a novel but very simple approach.     

Large Scale Mixing for Immiscible Displacement in Heterogeneous Porous Media

We derive a large scale mixing parameter for a displacement process of one fluid by another immiscible one in a two-dimensional heterogeneous porous medium. The mixing of the displacing fluid saturation due to the heterogeneities of the permeabilities is captured by a dispersive flux term in the large scale homogeneous flow equation. By making use of the stochastic approach we develop a definition of the dispersion coefficient and apply a Eulerian perturbation theory to determine explicit results to second order in the fluctuations of the total velocity. We apply this method to a uniform flow configuration as well as to a radial one. The dispersion coefficient is found to depend on the mean total velocity and can therefore be time varying. The results are compared to numerical multi-realization calculations. We found that the use of single phase flow stochastics cannot capture all phenomena observed in the numerical simulations.     

Modeling of Two-Phase Flow in Fractured Porous Media on Unstructured Non-Uniformly Coarsened Grids

In this article, we investigate two strategies for coarsening fractured geological models. The first approach, which generates grids that resolve the fractures, is referred to as explicit fracture-matrix separation (EFMS). The second approach is based on a non-uniform coarsening strategy introduced in Aarnes et al. (Adv Water Resour 30(11):2177–2193, 2007a). A series of two-phase flow simulations where the saturation is modeled on the respective coarse grids are performed. The accuracy of the resulting solutions is examined, and the robustness of the two strategies is assessed with respect to number of fractures, degree of coarsening, well locations, phase viscosities, and fracture permeability. The numerical results show that saturation solutions obtained on the non-uniform coarse grids are consistently more accurate than the corresponding saturation solutions obtained on the EFMS grids. The numerical results also reveal that it is much easier to tune the upscaling factor with the non-uniform coarsening approach.     

Dispersion Measurements in Highly Heterogeneous Laboratory Scale Porous Media

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations investigate conservative contaminant transport in a heterogeneous porous medium. The laboratory experiments were performed in cylindrical columns 1m long and 3.5cm inside diameter filled with spherical glass beads. Concentration breakthrough curves are measured at a scale much finer than the size of the heterogeneity. Numerical simulations are based on a random walk in a known constant velocity field. The heterogeneity is a distinct, discontinuous change in the local permeability field. Fluid flow is miscible, flowing in a saturated porous medium. Previous work has shown this to be a very poorly understood phenomenon. The measurements reported here help to better understand how dispersion evolves through and past a heterogeneity.     

Nonlinear Two-Phase Mixing in Heterogeneous Porous Media

For a two-phase immiscible flow through a heterogeneous porous medium in gravity field but with neglected capillary pressure, a macroscale model of first order is derived by a two-scale homogenization method while capturing the effect of fluid mixing. The mixing is manifested in the form of a nonlinear hydrodynamic dispersion and a transport velocity shift. The dispersion tensor is shown to be a nonlinear function of saturation. In the case offlow without gravity this function is proportional to the fractional flow derivative and depends on the viscosity ratio. For a flow which is one dimensional at the macroscale, the dispersion operator remains three dimensional and can be calculated in an analytical way. In the case of gravity induced flow, the longitudinal dispersion as the function of saturation is negative within some interval of saturation values. Numerical simulations of the microscale problemjustify the theoretical results of homogenization.     

Effective Diffusivity Tensors of Point-Like Molecules in Anisotropic Porous Media by Monte Carlo Simulation

Monte Carlo simulations of random walks in anisotropic structured media are performed to determine the dependence of effective diffusivities on geometrical properties. The anisotropic media used in this study are periodic systems, which are generated by extending primitive, face-centered, and body-centered unit cells indefinitely in all axial directions. Results of simulations compare well with published experimental data and the calculations by the volume averaging method. In addition, these results suggest that if the 2D media with percolation thresholds subtantially differ from those of 3D, 2D approximations of 3D media are not satisfactory. When percolation thresholds are the same, the effective diffusivity tensors depend solely on the porosity. This fact has been suggested for isotropic media and it seems to hold for anisotropic media.     

A Potential Formulation of Non-Linear Models of Flow through Anisotropic Porous Media

A theoretical analysis, based on the search for a normal dissipation potential, is performed in order to generalize the empirical non-Darcy one-dimensional flow models to 3-D flows through anisotropic porous media. In an abstract framework, it is proven that a large number of heuristic non-linear equations governing the multidimensional flow through isotropic porous media can be derived starting from a potential strictly related to the mechanical power dissipated by the fluid. Such a formulation allows to define, for the tensor permeability case, a wide class of filtration models according to the Onsager's generalized theory of dissipative mechanical systems. A consistent generalization to anisotropic permeability case of polynomial flow models is proposed. Both primal and dual mixed variational formulations associated to the proposed quadratic and incomplete cubic flow models are introduced and discussed.     

Electrical Resistivity Index in Multiphase Flow through Porous Media

The simultaneous flow of two phases through a three-dimensional porous medium is calculated by means of a Lattice-Boltzmann algorithm. The time-dependent phase configurations can be derived and also macroscopic quantities such as the relative permeabilities. When one phase only is supposed to be conductive, the Laplace equation which governs electrical conduction can be solved in each phase configuration; an instantaneous value of the macroscopic conductivity is obtained and it is averaged over many configurations. The influence of saturation on the resistivity index is studied for six different samples and two viscosity ratios. The saturation exponent is systematically determined. The numerical results are also compared to other possible models and also to experimental results; finally, they are discussed and criticized.     

不可压饱和粘弹性多孔介质固结问题的Gurtin型变分原理

基于多孔介质理论,在固相骨架和孔隙流体微观不可压,固相骨架小变形且满足线性粘弹性积分型本构关系的假定下,利用卷积积分的性质,本文首先建立了以固相骨架位移、孔隙流体相对速度和孔隙流体压力为宗量的流体饱和粘弹性多孔介质固结问题的一个Gurtin型变分原理.其次,利用Lagrange乘子法解除相关的变分约束条件,建立了流体饱和粘弹性多孔介质固结问题的若干广义Gurtin型变分原理,包括第三类的Hu-Washizu型变分原理.最后,简单讨论了等价初边值问题的相应变分原理.这些Gurtin型变分原理的建立不仅丰富了饱和粘弹性多孔介质的相关理论,而且为相关数值模拟方法,如有限元法、无网格法等的建立奠定了理论基础.     

流体饱和两相多孔介质拟静态问题的有限元解法

给出基于混合物理论的流体饱和两相多孔介质模型,该模型由一可变形固体 一流体相组成。采用Ｇａｌｅｒｋｉｎ加权残值法导出求解拟静态问题的有限元公式,并编制了二维有限元程序。用程序分析了一维和二维问题,得到合理的结果。