A model of incomplete phase transitions of gas hydrates in a porous medium

The kinetics of incomplete phase transitions of gas hydrates in a porous medium is considered. In such transformations, the solid hydrate and its decomposition products coexist in extended regions. The conservation laws that take into account mass, momentum, and energy transfer between the components of the medium are formulated. The concept of phase transition dissipation is introduced. A general form of the constitutive relations, which is necessary and sufficient for the entropy inequality to be satisfied in any processes involving a change of state of the medium, is found. A potential of the skeleton that takes into account the surface energy, the latent energy of the phase transition and the temperature dependence is proposed. A thermodynamically consistent kinetic equation is formulated. The conditions under which the phase transition of a hydrate begins and is completed are found. The problem of isothermal dissociation of a hydrate when the pressure on part of the boundary of the body is reduced is examined. The influence of several parameters of the model on the seepage of the decomposition products is investigated.     

Solution of plane seepage problems for a multivalued seepage law when there is a point source

The steady seepage of an incompressible fluid in a uniform porous medium, occupying an arbitrary bounded two-dimensional region, when there is a point source present is considered. Part of the boundary of the region is free, while the remaining part is impermeable for the fluid. It is assumed that the function defining the seepage law is multivalued and has a linear increase at infinity. A generalized formulation of the problem is proposed in the form of a variational inequality of the second kind. An approximate solution of the problem is obtained by an iterative splitting method, which enables approximate values of both the solution itself (the pressure) and its gradient to be found. Analytic expressions describing the boundaries of the region where the modulus of the pressure gradient takes a constant value are obtained for model problems of a line of bore holes. Numerical experiments are carried out for model problems, which confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method. Good agreement is observed between the results of calculations obtained analytically and by approximate methods.     

A non-equilibrium model of a porous medium saturated with immiscible fluids

A model of a thermoelastic porous medium, saturated with two immiscible fluids, is considered. It is assumed that there are no phase transitions, the contribution of pulsations to the stress and kinetic energy is small, and that the components of the medium are in thermodynamic equilibrium. The non-equilibrium of the state, related to the finite time of redistribution of the fluids among the pores of the channels due to the presence of surface forces, is taken into account. A general form of the governing relations, necessary and sufficient to satisfy the principles of thermodynamic compatibility and independence of the choice of system of coordinates, is obtained. It is shown that the establishment of equilibrium is accompanied by dissipation due to capillary forces, which does not lead to seepage dissipation or thermal dissipation. For the case when the deformation of the skeleton and the deviation of the mean porous pressure and the temperature from the initial values are small, while the saturation and the non-equilibrium parameter undergo finite changes, an approximation of the potential of the skeleton is proposed in the form of a quadratic expansion in small parameters. A feature of the expansion is the presence of an initial value of the potential, which depends on the saturation and non-equilibrium. The relationship between the thermodynamic potential and the non-equilibrium kinetics, related to the requirement that the dissipation by the capillary forces should be non-negative, is determined. A generalized Darcy's law is formulated, which takes cross terms into account. It is shown that the proposed approximations enable key effects, which accompany the motion of immiscible fluids in a porous medium, to be described.     

存在过渡区的复合气藏中凝析气的渗流模型及其应用

根据凝析气在多孔介质中渗流的相态变化特征,建立了凝析油-气不稳定渗流的基本微分方程,同时引入了凝析油-气两相拟压力函数对渗流方程进行了线性化处理;针对形成不同流体区域的凝折气藏、有边水的凝析气藏、岩性尖灭凝析气藏及井底存在污染和改善等多种情况,针对存在过渡区的复合凝析气藏建立了凝折油-气渗流新模型,模型更适合凝析气藏实际情况,并求出了凝析气藏油-气拟压力分布的拉氏空间解析解,确立了对凝析气井进行压力恢复试井的具体解释方法,从而为指导气田的合理开发提供可靠的依据.     

含湿相变粗糙多孔材质的热质耦合分形研究

多孔材质复杂的内部结构和含湿状态对传热和传质特性有着重要意义,其热质耦合传递过程广泛存在于能源开发和工程隔热等领域。不同于在多孔材质理想状态下对传热和传质特性的单方面分析,该文将孔道的分布参数、粗糙表面、含湿状态和相变等因素考虑进去,运用分形理论推导出了含湿相变粗糙表面多孔材质的渗流系数和耦合等效导热系数的表达式。结果表明,渗流系数与面积分形维数、含湿饱和度呈正相关,与相对粗糙度、迂曲分形维数呈负相关;耦合等效导热系数与渗流系数、相变量呈正相关,与相对粗糙度呈负相关。此外,结果还表明,相变量以及相变引起的气体膨胀压强差对热质耦合传递也有着重要影响。     

Influence of nonisothermal effects on gas production in northern regions

The influence of mathematical model parameters on the dynamics of pressure and temperature fields at nonisothermal gas filtration is investigated in a numerical experiment. A nonlinear system of partial differential equations obtained from the energy and mass conservation laws and the Darcy law are used to describe the process, and physical and caloric equations of state are used as closing relations. The boundary conditions correspond to a given pressure drop at the bottomhole. It is shown that the influence of the temperature field on such integral characteristics as cumulative gas production is most pronounced at moderate pressure drops. The size of the zone of possible hydrate formation in a gas reservoir is determined in a particular example.     

An upwind center difference parallel method and numerical analysis for the displacement problem with moving boundary

A nonlinear coupled mathematical system of two‐phase seepage flow displacement is discussed in this paper including an elliptic equation for the pressure and a convection‐dominated diffusion equation for the saturation. In fact, the boundary of an underground region where the fluid flows through is nonstationary. So a moving boundary should be considered. The saturation equation is convection‐dominated, therefore the method of upwind finite difference is introduced for the accurate computation. The upwind approximation could eliminate numerical oscillation and strong stability is shown. Since the computational work of saturation is larger than the pressure, the authors apply a parallel method, decomposing the whole domain into several nonoverlapping subdomains, to simplify the computation. A domain decomposition method coupled with upwind differences is presented for the saturation. The pressure equation is discretized by a five‐point center finite difference method. By using a transformation and defining new inner products and norms, error estimates in l² norm is discussed. Finally, two experimental tests are given to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the parallel algorithm.     

Reflection of acoustic waves in a cylindrical channel from the perforated part

The reflection and transmission of harmonic waves and waves of finite duration through the boundary of the perforated part of a cylindrical channel (a lined borehole), filled with a fluid and surrounded by a permeable porous medium, is investigated. A model of the plane time-varying fluid flow in the cylindrical channel in a quasi-one-dimensional approximation and of the seepage absorption of the fluid in the porous medium surrounding the channel is presented. The effect of the collector characteristics of the porous medium surrounding the channel and the quality of the perforation (the length of the perforation channels) on the evolution of the waves when they are reflected from the boundary of the perforated part of the wall are investigated.     

Steady cooling and global overheating processes in a hazardous reactor

The non-linear problem of the seepage of a gas in a weakly conducting porous medium, which simulates the overheating of a reactor, is investigated. An analytical calculation of the critical values of the similarity parameter of the problem, which determine the condition for steady cooling of a system that is open to the atmosphere and the condition for global overheating, is carried out. Estimates of the above-mentioned values of the similarity parameter are obtained in the three-dimensional case.     

Homogenization of compressible two-phase two-component flow in porous media

The paper is devoted to the homogenization of immiscible compressible two-phase two-component flow in heterogeneous porous media. We consider liquid and gas phases, two-component (water and hydrogen) flow in a porous reservoir with periodic microstructure, modeling the hydrogen migration through engineered and geological barriers for a deep repository for radioactive waste. Phase exchange, capillary effects included by the Darcy–Muskat law and Fickian diffusion are taken into account. The hydrogen in the gas phase is supposed compressible and could be dissolved into the water obeying the Henry law. The flow is then described by the conservation of the mass for each component. The microscopic model is written in terms of the phase formulation, i.e. the liquid saturation phase and the gas pressure phase are primary unknowns. This formulation leads to a coupled system consisting of a nonlinear parabolic equation for the gas pressure and a nonlinear degenerate parabolic diffusion–convection equation for the liquid saturation, subject to appropriate boundary and initial conditions. The major difficulties related to this model are in the nonlinear degenerate structure of the equations, as well as in the coupling in the system. Under some realistic assumptions on the data, we obtain a nonlinear homogenized problem with effective coefficients which are computed via a cell problem. We rigorously justify this homogenization process for the problem by using the two-scale convergence.     

Seepage refraction in a semicircular lens located at the boundary of two porous massifs

The problem of calculating the two-dimensional seepage field in a structurally inhomogeneous three-component medium in the form of two infinitely porous massifs with a semicircular inclusion in their plane boundary of contact is considered. The distribution of the seepage rate, when two matching conditions along the lines of contact of unlike zones are strictly satisfied, is obtained in closed analytic form by methods of complex analysis. Limiting cases of the conduction of the components of the medium and cases of the degeneration of a three-component medium into a two-component medium are considered.     

Completely Conservative Difference Schemes for Fluid Dynamics in a Piezoconductive Medium with Gas Hydrate Inclusions

Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Physics - The dynamics equations for a two-component fluid in a porous medium with gas hydrate inclusions are approximated on a structurally irregular...     

Homogenization of a two‐phase incompressible fluid in crossflow filtration through a porous medium

We study the homogenization of a slow viscous two‐phase incompressible flow in a domain consisting of a free fluid domain, a porous medium, and the interface between them. We take into account the capillary forces on the fluid‐fluid interfaces. We construct boundary layers describing the flow at the interface between the free fluid and the porous medium. We derive a macroscopic model with a viscous two‐phase fluid in the free domain, a coupled Darcy law connecting two‐phase velocities in the porous medium, and boundary conditions at the permeable interface between the free fluid domain and the porous medium.     

Linear and non-linear magnetoconvection in a porous medium

Linear and non-linear magnetoconvection in a sparsely packed porous medium with an imposed vertical magnetic field is studied. In the case of linear theory the conditions for direct and oscillatory modes are obtained using the normal modes. Conditions for simple and Hopf-bifurcations are also given. Using the theory of self-adjoint operator the variation of critical eigenvalue with physical parameters and boundary conditions is studied. In the case of non-linear theory the subcritical instabilities for disturbances of finite amplitude is discussed in detail using a truncated representation of the Fourier expansion. The formal eigenfunction expansion procedure in the Fourier expansion based on the eigenfunctions of the corresponding linear stability problem is justified by proving a completeness theorem for a general class of non-self-adjoint eigenvalue problems. It is found that heat transport increases with an increase in Rayleigh number, ratio of thermal diffusivity to magnetic diffusivity and porous parameter but decreases with an increase in Chandrasekhar number.     

An existence result for nonisothermal immiscible incompressible 2‐phase flow in heterogeneous porous media

In the present article, we study the temperature effects on two‐phase immiscible incompressible flow through a porous medium. The mathematical model is given by a coupled system of 2‐phase flow equations and an energy balance equation. The model consists of the usual equations derived from the mass conservation of both fluids along with the Darcy‐Muskat and the capillary pressure laws. The problem is written in terms of the phase formulation; ie, the saturation of one phase, the pressure of the second phase, and the temperature are primary unknowns. The major difficulties related to this model are in the nonlinear degenerate structure of the equations, as well as in the coupling in the system. Under some realistic assumptions on the data, we show the existence of weak solutions with the help of an appropriate regularization and a time discretization. We use suitable test functions to obtain a priori estimates. We prove a new compactness result to pass to the limit in nonlinear terms.     

On Two‐Phasic Flow Problems in Elasto‐Plastic Porous Materials

In the present contribution, the formulation of the governing equations of coupled flow and deformation processes in porous materials is based on the well‐founded Theory of Porous Media (TPM) [2, 3]. Embedded in this concept, the model under consideration represents a triphasic medium of a cohesive‐frictional elasto‐plastic solid skeleton and a binary pore‐fluid, which is composed of a materially incompressible wetting phase (here water) and a materially compressible non‐wetting phase (here air). The unsaturated domain (saturation in terms of liquid saturation) of the porous medium is included in the model by the application of a suitable capillary‐pressure‐saturation relation, which takes into account the interaction of the solid skeleton and the two pore‐fluids. Furthermore, the interaction is described by Darcy's filter law including a relative permeability, which depends on the deformation of the pore space and the degree of saturation.     

A free boundary problem for a fluid flow in a heterogeneous porous medium

In this paper we study the problem of seepage of a fluid through a porous medium, assuming the flow governed by a nonlinear Darcy law and nonlinear leaky boundary conditions. We prove the continuity of the free boundary and the existence and uniqueness of minimal and maximal solutions. We also prove the uniqueness of theS ₃-connected solution in various situations.     

A One‐dimensional flow problem in porous media with hydrophile grains

We study a free boundary problem describing the propagation of the wetting front following the injection of a liquid into a porous medium with hydrophile granules. The absorption process produces a non‐local interaction with the flow so that the porosity appearing in the parabolic equation for pressure is a functional of saturation and of the free boundary. Our analysis is confined to the unsaturated regime, which is the first stage of the process. An existence theorem is proved. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.