Capillary ascension in porous media: A scaling law

A relationship between the microstructure of a porous medium and the height of ascension of a fluid in the material is proposed. The porous medium is modelled by means of a square lattice randomly filled with matter. A scaling law is derived from a numerical simulation. An analytical solution is also obtained and compared with the numerical results.     

Steady-state two-phase flow through planar and nonplanar model porous media

Transport in Porous Media - A comparative experimental study of ‘steady-state’ two-phase flow in two types of model porous media is made to determine the effects of nonplanarity on the...     

A LGA model for fluid flow in heterogeneous porous media

A lattice gas automaton (LGA) model is proposed to simulate fluid flow in heterogeneous porous media. Permeability fields are created by distributing scatterers (solids, grains) within the fluid flow field. These scatterers act as obstacles to flow. The loss in momentum of the fluid is directly related to the permeability of the lattice gas model. It is shown that by varying the probability of occurrence of solid nodes, the permeability of the porous medium can be changed over several orders of magnitude. To simulate fluid flow in heterogeneous permeability fields, isotropic, anisotropic, random, and correlated permeability fields are generated. The lattice gas model developed here is then used to obtain the effective permeability as well as the local fluid flow field. The method presented here can be used to simulate fluid flow in arbitrarily complex heterogeneous porous media.     

Mathematical model of two-phase fluid nonlinear flow in low-permeability porous media with applications

IntroductionItisasuccessfulexampleinadevelopmentstoryofscienceandtechnologyformechanicsoffluidsinporousmediatocombinewithengineeringtechnology .Fieldsinfluencedbythemechanicsinvolveddevelopmentofoil_gasandgroundwaterresources,controlonseawaterintrusionandsubsidenceandgeologichazards,geotechnicalengineeringandbioengineering ,andairlineindustry[1～ 7].Aproblemonnonlinearflowinlow_permeabilityporousmediaisbutonlyabasiconeindifferentkindsofengineeringfields,butalsooneoffrontlineresearchfieldsofmod…     

On the properties of compressible gas flow in a porous media

The flow of an adiabatic gas through a porous media is treated analytically for steady one- and two-dimensional flows. The effect on a compressible Darcy flow by inertia and Forchheimer terms is studied. Finally, wave solutions are found which exhibit a cut-off frequency and a phase shift between pressure and velocity of the gas, with the velocity lagging behind the pressure.Nomenclature A area of tube for one-dimensional flow - B drag coefficient associated with Forchheimer term - c speed of sound - M Mach number - p ^* gas pressure - p dimensionless gas pressure - s coordinate along the axis of tube - t ^* time variable - t dimensionless time variable - V^* gas velocity in the porous media - V dimensionless gas velocity Greek Letters ratio of specific heat capacities - phase angle between gas pressure and velocity for linear waves - parameter indicating the importance of the inertia term - viscosity - _p natural frequency of the porous media - ^* gas density - dimensionless gas density - parameter indicating the importance of the Forchheimer term - porosity of porous media - velocity potential - stream function     

Nonstationary model of immiscible fluid flow through porous media

Unsteady two-phase flow through a microinhomogeneous porous medium is considered. A forest growth model — a percolation model that enables nonequilibrium effects to be taken into account — is proposed for describing the dynamics of the process. In the context of the plane problem expressions are obtained for determining the saturation and the characteristic dimensions of the stagnation zones of trapped phase behind the displacement front.Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.6, pp. 73–80, November–December, 1993.     

Generalized relative permeability coefficients during steady-state two-phase flow in porous media,and correlation with the flow mechanisms

A parametric experimental investigation of the coupling effects during steady-state two-phase flow in porous media was carried out using a large model pore network of the chamber-and-throat type, etched in glass. The wetting phase saturation,S ₁, the capillary number,Ca, and the viscosity ratio,k, were changed systematically, whereas the wettability (contact angleθ _e ), the coalescence factorCo, and the geometrical and topological parameters were kept constant. The fluid flow rate and the pressure drop were measured independently for each fluid. During each experiment, the pore-scale flow mechanisms were observed and videorecorded, and the mean water saturation was determined with image analysis. Conventional relative permeability, as well as generalized relative permeability coefficients (with the viscous coupling terms taken explicitly into account) were determined with a new method that is based on a B-spline functional representation combined with standard constrained optimization techniques. A simple relationship between the conventional relative permeabilities and the generalized relative permeability coefficients is established based on several experimental sets. The viscous coupling (off-diagonal) coefficients are found to be comparable in magnitude to the direct (diagonal) coefficients over board ranges of the flow parameter values. The off-diagonal coefficients (k _rij /Μ _j ) are found to be unequal, and this is explained by the fact that, in the class of flows under consideration, microscopic reversibility does not hold and thus the Onsager-Casimir reciprocal relation does not apply. Thecoupling indices are introduced here; they are defined so that the magnitude of each coupling index is the measure of the contribution of the coupling effects to the flow rate of the corresponding fluid. A correlation of the coupling indices with the underlying flow mechanisms and the pertinent flow parameters is established.     

Effective and relative permeabilities of anisotropie porous media

A model composed of a three-dimensional orthogonal network of capillary tubes was used to simulate the flow behavior in an unsaturated anisotropic soil. The anisotropy in the network's permeability was introduced by randomly selecting the radii in the three mutually orthogonal directions of the network tubes from three different lognormal probability distributions, one for each direction. These three directions were assumed to be the principal directions of anisotropy. The sample was gradually drained, with only tubes smaller than a certain diameter remaining full at each degree of saturation. Computer experiments were conducted to determine the network's effective permeability as a function of saturation. The main conclusion was that the relationship between saturation and effective permeability depends on direction. Consequently the concept of relative permeability used in unsaturated flow should be limited to isotropic media and not extended to anisotropic ones.     

Nonlinear flow in fractured porous media

Conventional models of filtration in fractured porous bodies involve certain unwarrantable assumptions related to the definition of basic equations and the underestimation of a connection between the effective properties of a body and both the stress system and the pressure of a flowing fluid. A new theory is developed with the help of reconsidering those underlying assumptions and of a conception of the body being subject to elastic deformations. The theory is illustrated by means of studying a particular problem of stationary filtration.     

Measuring transport coefficients necessary for the description of coupled two-phase flow of immiscible fluids in porous media

In the simplist cases of coupled two-phase flow of immiscible fluids in porous media, the governing equations usually are written to show that there are four independent transport coefficients that implicitly have to be separately measured. The analysis presented here accordingly indicates that two types of known experiments involving two measurements apiece are needed at each fluid saturation condition in order to provide the necessary and sufficient information by which the unsteady as well as the steady states of ensuing transport processes can be established and characterized. Apparently, however, the fact that methodologies are already available for the required laboratory work either is not widely appreciated or it is being overlooked. For this reason and others, mention is made of the surprising fact that the experimental difficulties to be confronted in the actual study of coupled transport processes are no greater than those that have already been dealt with by the advocates of classical relative permeability theory (i.e. the traditionalists who simplistically model two-phase flow as though no coupling effects are involved).     

On the flow of fluids through inhomogeneous porous media due to high pressure gradients

Most porous solids are inhomogeneous and anisotropic, and the flows of fluids taking place through such porous solids may show features very different from that of flow through a porous medium with constant porosity and permeability. In this short paper we allow for the possibility that the medium is inhomogeneous and that the viscosity and drag are dependent on the pressure (there is considerable experimental evidence to support the fact that the viscosity of a fluid depends on the pressure). We then investigate the flow through a rectangular slab for two different permeability distributions, considering both the generalized Darcy and Brinkman models. We observe that the solutions using the Darcy and Brinkman models could be drastically different or practically identical, depending on the inhomogeneity, that is, the permeability and hence the Darcy number.     

Effects of viscous dissipation on thermally developing forced convection in a porous saturated circular tube with an isoflux wall

The viscous dissipation effect on forced convection in a porous saturated circular tube with an isoflux wall is investigated on the basis of the Brinkman flow model. For the thermally developing region, a numerical study is reported while a perturbation analysis is presented to find expressions for the temperature profile and the Nusselt number for the fully developed region. The fully developed Nusselt number found by numerical solution for the developing region is compared with that of asymptotic analysis and a good degree of agreement is observed.     

On shear thinning fluid flow induced by continuous mass injection in porous media with variable conductivity

A new formulation is proposed to examine the propagation of the pressure disturbance induced by the injection of a time-variable mass of a weakly compressible shear thinning fluid in a porous domain with generalized geometry (plane, radial, or spherical). Medium heterogeneity along the flow direction is conceptualized as a monotonic power-law permeability variation. The resulting nonlinear differential problem admits a similarity solution in dimensionless form which provides the velocity of the pressure front and describes the pressure field within the domain as a function of geometry, fluid flow behavior index, injection rate, and exponent of the permeability variation. The problem has a closed-form solution for an instantaneous injection, generalizing earlier results for constant permeability. A parameter-dependent upper bound to the permeability increase in the flow direction needs to be imposed for the expression of the front velocity to retain its physical meaning. An example application to the radial injection of a remediation agent in a subsurface environment demonstrates the impact of permeability spatial variations and of their interplay with uncertainties in flow behavior index on model predictions.     

Viscous coupling in two-phase flow in porous media and its effect on relative permeabilities

An idealized model of a porous rock consisting of a bundle of capillary tubes whose cross-sections are regular polygons is used to assess the importance of viscous coupling or lubrication during simultaneous oil-water flow. Fluids are nonuniformly distributed over tubes of different characteristic dimension because of the requirements of capillary equilibrium and the effect of interfacial viscosity at oil-water interfaces is considered. With these assumptions, we find that the importance of viscous coupling depends on the rheology of the oil-water interface. Where the interfacial shear viscosity is zero, viscous coupling leading to a dependence of oil relative permeability on oil-water viscosity ratio for viscosity ratios greater than one is important for a range of pore cross-section shapes and pore size distributions. For nonzero interfacial shear viscosity, viscous coupling is reduced. Using values reported in the literature for crude oil-brine systems, we find no viscous coupling.     

An overview on nonlinear porous flow in low permeability porous media

This paper gives an overview on nonlinear porous flow in low permeability porous media, reveals the microscopic mechanisms of flows, and clarifies properties of porous flow fluids. It shows that, deviating from Darcy's linear law, the porous flow characteristics obey a nonlinear law in a low-permeability porous medium, and the viscosity of the porous flow fluid and the permeability values of water and oil are not constants. Based on these characters, a new porous flow model, which can better describe low permeability reservoir, is established. This model can describe various patterns of porous flow, as Darcy's linear law does. All the parameters involved in the model, having definite physical meanings, can be obtained directly from the experiments.     

Saturated steam relative permeabilities of unconsolidated porous media

This paper presents a method and describes an experimental device for determining the steam-water relative permeabilites of unconsolidated porous media. The experimental conditions are as close as possible to those of geothermal reservoirs. The relative permeabilities have been obtained at 180 and 150?C. Their variations versus liquid saturation are quite classical. The air-water relative permeabilities have been measured also at room temperature. The values obtained under these three conditions are almost identical. However, the air-water relative permeability differs slightly from that of steam at 180 and 150?C. We think this discrepancy is acceptable in practice, as it is easier to determine the relative permeabilities for an air-water flow at room temperature than for a steam-water flow at high temperature and pressure.     

An elastoplasticity model in porous media theories

In this article, porous media theories are referred to as mixture theories extended by the well-known concept of volume fractions. This approach implies the diverse field functions of both the porous solid matrix and the pore fluid to be represented by average functions of the macroscale.The present investigations are based on a binary model of incompressible constituents, solid skeleton, and pore liquid, where, in the constitutive range, use is made of the second-grade character of general heterogeneous media. Within the framework of geometrically finite theories, the paper offers a set of constitutive equations for the solid matrix, the viscous pore liquid and the different interactions between the constituents. The constitutive model applies to saturated as well as to empty solid materials, taking into account the physical nonlinearities based on elasto-plastic solid deformations. In particular, the constitutive model concentrates on granular materials like soil or concrete, where the elastic deformations are usually small and the plastic range is governed by kinematically hardening properties.