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.     

High-Velocity Laminar and Turbulent Flow in Porous Media

We model high-velocity flow in porous media with the multiple scale homogenization technique and basic fluid mechanics. Momentum and mechanical energy theorems are derived. In idealized porous media inviscid irrotational flow in the pores and wall boundary layers give a pressure loss with a power of 3/2 in average velocity. This model has support from flow in simple model media. In complex media the flow separates from the solid surface. Pressure loss effects of flow separation, wall and free shear layers, pressure drag, flow tube velocity and developing flow are discussed by using phenomenological arguments. We propose that the square pressure loss in the laminar Forchheimer equation is caused by development of strong localized dissipation zones around flow separation, that is, in the viscous boundary layer in triple decks. For turbulent flow, the resulting pressure loss due to average dissipation is a power 2 term in velocity.     

Influence of Vertical Vibrations on the Stability of a Binary Mixture in a Horizontal Porous Layer Subjected to a Vertical Heat Flux

Macroscale three-dimensional modeling of fluid flow in a thin porous layer under unsaturated conditions is a challenging task. One major issue is that such layers do not satisfy the representative elementary volume length-scale requirement. Recently, a new approach, called reduced continua model (RCM), has been developed to describe multiphase fluid flow in a stack of thin porous layers. In that approach, flow equations are formulated in terms of thickness-averaged variables and properties. In this work, we have performed a set of experiments, where a wet \(260\hbox {-}\upmu \hbox {m}\)-thin porous layer was placed on top of a dry layer of the same material. We measured the change of average saturation with time using a single-sided low-field nuclear magnetic resonance device known as NMR-MOUSE. We have employed both RCM and the traditional Richards equation-based models to simulate our experimental results. We found that the traditional unsaturated flow model cannot simulate experimental results satisfactorily. Very close agreement was obtained by including the dynamic capillary term as postulated by Hassanizadeh and Gray in the traditional equations. The reduced continua model was found to be in good agreement with the experimental result without adding dynamic capillarity term. Moreover, the computational effort needed for RCM simulations was one order of magnitude less than that of traditional models.     

Effects of Viscous Dissipation on Unsteady Free Convection in a Fluid Past a Vertical Plate Immersed in a Porous Medium

The effects of viscous dissipation on unsteady free convection from an isothermal vertical flat plate in a fluid saturated porous medium are examined numerically. The Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model is employed to describe the flow field. A new model of viscous dissipation is used for the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model of porous media. The simultaneous development of the momentum and thermal boundary layers are obtained by using a finite difference method. Boundary layer and Boussinesq approximation have been incorporated. Numerical calculations are carried out for various parameters entering into the problem. Velocity and temperature profiles as well as local friction factor and local Nusselt number are shown graphically. It is found that as time approaches infinity, the values of friction factor and heat transfer coefficient approach steady state.     

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.     

复杂微通道气体流动的格子Boltzmann模拟

构建了一个模拟复杂微通道内气体流动的多松弛格子Boltzmann模型。该模型采用动力学曲面滑移边界,考虑了微尺度效应和努森层影响。此外,为了更准确地描述微通道内气体的滑移速度,在模型中引入孔隙局部Kn数来代替平均Kn数。之后采用Poiseuille流对模型进行验证,模拟结果与用直接模拟蒙特卡洛方法和分子模拟结果吻合较好,证明了该模型模拟微通道内处于滑移区和过渡区气体流动的有效性。最后,采用该模型模拟多孔介质内气体渗流过程。结果表明,随着孔隙平均Kn数的增加,多孔介质内的高渗区域增加,且优先从小孔隙中开始增加,这是由于小孔隙中微尺度效应更加明显,相对大孔隙流动阻力更小所致。     

Mathematical modelling of flow through consolidated isotropic porous media

A new mathematical model is proposed for time-independent laminar flow through a rigid isotropic and consolidated porous medium of spatially varying porosity. The model is based upon volumetric averaging concepts. Explicit assumptions regarding the mean geometric properties of the porous microstructure lead to a relationship between tortuosity and porosity. Microscopic inertial effects are introduced through consideration of flow development within the pores. A momentum transport equation is derived in terms of the fluid properties, the porous medium porosity and a characteristic length of the microstructure. In the limiting cases of porosity unity and zero, the model yields the required Navier-Stokes equation for free flow and no flow in a solid, respectively.     

Natural convection in an inclined enclosure with a fluid layer and a heat-generating porous bed

Multiple steady-state solutions of natural convection in an inclined enclosure with a fluid layer and a heat-generating porous bed is investigated numerically by the finite volume method. The conservation equations for the porous layer are based on a general flow model which includes both the effects of flow inertia and friction. The flow in fluid layer is modeled by Navier–Stokes equations. The method of pseudo arc-length continuation is adapted in studying the effects of tilt angle on flow pattern and heat transfer. It is found that, in the whole domain of tilt angle, there exist two groups of solutions with quite different flow pattern and heat transfer behavior. The effects of aspect ratio on flow pattern and heat transfer have also been studied. Received on 04 March 1997     

A Two-Layer Mathematical Model of Blood Flow in Porous Constricted Blood Vessels

In this paper, we discussed a mathematical model for two-layered non-Newtonian blood flow through porous constricted blood vessels. The core region of blood flow contains the suspension of erythrocytes as non-Newtonian Casson fluid and the peripheral region contains the plasma flow as Newtonian fluid. The wall of porous constricted blood vessel configured as thin transition Brinkman layer over layered by Darcy region. The boundary of fluid layer is defined as stress jump condition of Ocha-Tapiya and Beavers–Joseph. In this paper, we obtained an analytic expression for velocity, flow rate, wall shear stress. The effect of permeability, plasma layer thickness, yield stress and shape of the constriction on velocity in core & peripheral region, wall shear stress and flow rate is discussed graphically. This is found throughout the discussion that permeability and plasma layer thickness have accountable effect on various flow parameters which gives an important observation for diseased blood vessels.     

Permeability of the Fluid-Filled Inclusions in Porous Media

In this article, we propose an approach to obtain the equivalent permeability of the fluid-filled inclusions embedded into a porous host in which a fluid flow obeys Darcy’s law. The approach consists in the comparison of the solutions for one-particle problem describing the flow inside the inclusion, firstly, by the Stokes equations and then by using Darcy’s law. The results obtained for spheres (3D) and circles (2D) demonstrate that the inclusion equivalent permeability is a function of its radius and, additionally, depends on the host permeability. Based on this definition of inclusion permeability and using effective medium method, we have calculated the effective permeability of the double-porosity medium composed of the permeable matrix (with small scale pores) and large scale secondary spherical pores.     

Dynamic bulk and shear moduli due to grain-scale local fluid flow in fluid-saturated cracked poroelastic rocks: Theoretical model

Grain-scale local fluid flow is an important loss mechanism for attenuating waves in cracked fluid-saturated poroelastic rocks. In this study, a dynamic elastic modulus model is developed to quantify local flow effect on wave attenuation and velocity dispersion in porous isotropic rocks. The Eshelby transform technique, inclusion-based effective medium model (the Mori–Tanaka scheme), fluid dynamics and mass conservation principle are combined to analyze pore-fluid pressure relaxation and its influences on overall elastic properties. The derivation gives fully analytic, frequency-dependent effective bulk and shear moduli of a fluid-saturated porous rock. It is shown that the derived bulk and shear moduli rigorously satisfy the Biot-Gassmann relationship of poroelasticity in the low-frequency limit, while they are consistent with isolated-pore effective medium theory in the high-frequency limit. In particular, a simplified model is proposed to quantify the squirt-flow dispersion for frequencies lower than stiff-pore relaxation frequency. The main advantage of the proposed model over previous models is its ability to predict the dispersion due to squirt flow between pores and cracks with distributed aspect ratio instead of flow in a simply conceptual double-porosity structure. Independent input parameters include pore aspect ratio distribution, fluid bulk modulus and viscosity, and bulk and shear moduli of the solid grain. Physical assumptions made in this model include (1) pores are inter-connected and (2) crack thickness is smaller than the viscous skin depth. This study is restricted to linear elastic, well-consolidated granular rocks.     

Investigation of the Relative Motion of a Viscous Fluid and a Porous Medium Using the Brinkman Equations

Exact solutions are obtained for the following three problems in which the Brinkman filtration equations are used: laminar fluid flow between parallel plane walls, one of which is rigid while the other is a plane layer of saturated porous medium, motion of a plane porous layer between parallel layers of viscous fluid, and laminar fluid flow in a cylindrical channel bounded by an annular porous layer.     

Reduction in drag and vortex shedding frequency through porous sheath around a circular cylinder

A numerical study on the laminar vortex shedding and wake flow due to a porous‐wrapped solid circular cylinder has been made in this paper. The cylinder is horizontally placed, and is subjected to a uniform cross flow. The aim is to control the vortex shedding and drag force through a thin porous wrapper around a solid cylinder. The flow field is investigated for a wide range of Reynolds number in the laminar regime. The flow in the porous zone is governed by the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer extended model and the Navier–Stokes equations in the fluid region. A control volume approach is adopted for computation of the governing equations along with a second‐order upwind scheme, which is used to discretize the convective terms inside the fluid region. The inclusion of a thin porous wrapper produces a significant reduction in drag and damps the oscillation compared with a solid cylinder. Dependence of Strouhal number and drag coefficient on porous layer thickness at different Reynolds number is analyzed. The dependence of Strouhal number and drag on the permeability of the medium is also examined. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Natural convection due to heat and mass transfer in a composite system

A numerical study is performed to analyse heat and mass transfer phenomena due to natural convection in a composite cavity containing a fluid layer overlying a porous layer saturated with the same fluid. The flow in the porous region is modelled using Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy model that includes both the effect of macroscopic shear (Brinkman effect) and flow inertia (Forchheimer effect). The vertical walls of the two-dimensional enclosure are isothermal whilst the horizontal walls are adiabatic. The two regions are coupled by equating the velocity and stress components at the interface. The resulting coupled equations in non-dimensional form are solved by an alternating direction implicit method by transforming them into parabolic form by the addition of false transient terms. The numerical results show that the amount of fluid penetration into the porous layer depends strongly upon the Darcy, thermal and solutal Rayleigh numbers. Average Nusselt number decreases while average Sherwood number increases with an increase of the Lewis number. The transfer of heat and mass on the heated wall near the interface depends strongly on the Darcy number. Received on 11 May 1998     

Intrapore convection when the average temperature gradient is vertical

The heat conduction of a porous medium saturated with a fluid is usually regarded as being purely molecular [1]. The assumption here is that in the case of heating from below the local temperature gradient within each of the pores, like the averaged gradient in the complete layer, is strictly vertical, and, since the pores are as a rule small, this local gradient is less than the critical. It is therefore assumed that in the absence of large-scale convection the fluid in the pores is in equilibrium. However, for different thermal conductivities of the fluid and the porous skeleton surrounding it a vertical temperature gradient in the fluid and, accordingly, equilibrium of the fluid are possible only if a cavity is a sphere or an ellipsoid with a definite orientation [1]. Since the pores do not have such shapes, the convective motion that arises in each of the pores or in several communicating pores can lead to an increase in the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid and, accordingly, the effective thermal conductivity of the complete medium. The present paper is devoted to study of this effect.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 93–98, January–February, 1984.     

Stability of Thermosolutal Natural Convection in Superposed Fluid and Porous Layers

This article deals with the onset of thermosolutal natural convection in horizontal superposed fluid and porous layers. A linear stability analysis is performed using the one-domain approach. As in the thermal convection case, the results show a bimodal nature of the marginal stability curves where each mode corresponds to a different convective instability. At small wave numbers, the convective flow occurs in the whole cavity (“porous mode”) while perturbations of large wave numbers lead to a convective flow mainly confined in the fluid layer (“fluid mode”). Furthermore, it is shown that the onset of thermosolutal natural convection is characterized by a multi-cellular flow in the fluid region for negative thermal Rayleigh numbers. For positive thermal Rayleigh numbers, the convective flow takes place both in the fluid and porous regions. The influence of the depth ratio and thermal diffusivity ratio is also investigated for a wide range of the thermal Rayleigh numbers.     

Towards a theory of nonequilibrium multiphase filtration flow

A new theoretical model of joint filtration flow of immiscible incompressible fluids is presented. This model takes into account relaxation processes due to the exchange of the fluids between pores of different sizes, and these relaxation processes are driven by capillary forces. The fluids occupy connected regions in the four-dimensional space formed by three coordinates and the pore length scale. When fluid exchange between pores of given sizes is effected by way of successive flow through pores of all intermediate sizes, the fluid pressure within each region is governed by a hyperbolic equation, the role of time being played by the pore linear scale. Pressure jumps across hypersurfaces separating these regions are equal to corresponding values of capillary pressure. A supplementary condition at any such hypersurface requires the speed of its displacement in the four-dimensional space to coincide with the normal velocity components of both the adjoining fluids. As a result, a new formulation of multiphase filtration flow problems is gained with allowance made for capillary relaxation in the porous space.     

Investigation of turbulence effects on forced convection in a composite porous/fluid duct: Constant wall flux and constant wall temperature cases

Forced convection heat transfer in composite porous/fluid domains is of great practical and theoretical significance. However, research in this area traditionally addressed only the laminar flow case in both homogeneous fluid and porous regions of the domain. This paper investigates the interaction between turbulent flow in the center of a circular tube filled with a homogeneous fluid and laminar flow in the porous layer adjacent to the tube wall. A two-layer algebraic turbulence model suggested by Cebeci and Smith is utilized for the flow in the central region of the tube. The effects of turbulence in the central region on velocity and temperature distributions as well as on the Nusselt number are analyzed.     

Brinkmann Model and Double Penalization Method for the Flow Around a Porous Thin Layer

In this paper we study a penalization method used to compute the flow of a viscous fluid around a thin layer of porous material. Using a BKW method, we perform an asymptotic expansion of the solution when a little parameter, measuring the thickness of the thin layer and the inverse of the penalization coefficient, tends to zero. We compare then this numerical method with a Brinkman model for the flow around a porous thin layer.      

Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer in a Three-Dimensional Channel Coupled with Flow Through Porous Structures

This study investigates numerically the turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics of a T-junction mixing, where a porous media flow is vertically discharged in a 3D fully developed channel flow. The fluid equations for the porous medium are solved in a pore structure level using an Speziale, Sarkar and Gatski turbulence model and validated with open literature data. Overall, two types of porous structures, consisted of square pores, are investigated over a wide range of Reynolds numbers: an in-line and a staggered pore structure arrangement. The flow patterns, including the reattachment length in the channel, the velocity field inside the porous medium as well as the fluctuation velocity at the interface, are found to be strongly affected by the velocity ratio between the transversely interacting flow streams. In addition, the heat transfer examination of the flow domain reveals that the temperature distribution in the porous structure is more uniform for the staggered array. The local heat transfer distributions inside the porous structure are also studied, and the general heat transfer rates are correlated in terms of area-averaged Nusselt number accounting for the effects of Reynolds number, velocity ratio as well as the geometrical arrangement of the porous structures.