A Non-isothermal Pore Network Drying Model with Gravity Effect

The concept of immiscible displacement as an invasion percolation (IP) process driven by heat and mass transfer is used in a pore network model for convective drying of capillary porous media. The coupling between heat and mass transfer occurs at the liquid–gas interface through temperature-dependent equilibrium vapor pressure and surface tension as well as the phase change enthalpy (in evaporation and condensation). The interfacial effects due to capillary forces and gravity are combined in an invasion potential; viscous forces are neglected. Simulation results show stabilized invasion patterns and finite drying front width by the influence of gravity.     

A Network Model for Diffusion in Media with Partially Resolvable Pore Space Characteristics

A microstructure-informed meso-scale model for diffusion of foreign species in porous media is proposed. The model is intended for media where the pore geometry data acquired experimentally represent a fraction of total porosity. A cellular complex, with a cell representing the average pore neighbourhood, is used to generate 3D graphs of sites at cell centres and bonds between neighbouring cells. The novel interpretation of pore systems as graphs allows for clear separation between topology (here connectedness) and physics (here diffusion) in the mathematical formulation of transport. Further, it allows for easy introduction of dynamics into the system, i.e., local changes in topology due to other physical mechanisms, such as micro-cracking or blockage of pores. A mapping between microstructure features and graph elements is used for model construction. The mapping is based on data for clays, where the experimentally resolved pore system comprises isolated elongated pores of preferred orientation with a large volume fraction of unresolved pores. Both the resolved and the “hidden” systems are accounted for. The graph geometry is described by a principal length, the cell size in the preferred orientation, and a secondary length, the cell size out of preferred orientation. This is considered as a representation of mineralogical heterogeneity of clays. Analysis on graphs, a specialisation of the discrete exterior calculus, is used to obtain connectivity and diffusivity properties of formed networks. Since the experimental data are not sufficient to determine the principal length, upper and lower limits are determined from the limited information. Effects of the principal cell size between limits and of the secondary cell size are studied. The results are within the range of experimentally measured macroscopic (bulk) diffusivity for the material studied, including anisotropic diffusion coefficients. The variation of calculated diffusivity coefficients with principal and secondary lengths provides an explanation for the variability in experimentally measured coefficients across different clays.     

A Dynamic Model of Capillary Hysteresis in Immiscible Fluid Displacement

The capillary hysteresis in a dynamic and quasi-static two-fluid flow in a porous medium is discussed. Thermodynamic background is presented. It is shown that physically acceptable constitutive relations satisfying the thermodynamic conditions can be constructed in terms of Preisach hysteresis operators.     

A Process-Based Pore Network Model Construction for Granular Packings Under Large Plastic Deformations

Transport in Porous Media - We propose a process-based method for constructing a pore network model of granular packings under large deformations. The method uses the radical Voronoi tessellation...     

Network Modeling of EOR Processes: A Combined Invasion Percolation and Dynamic Model for Mobilization of Trapped Oil

A novel concept for modeling pore-scale phenomena included in several enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods is presented. The approach combines a quasi-static invasion percolation model with a single-phase dynamic transport model in order to integrate mechanistic chemical oil mobilization methods. A framework is proposed that incorporates mobilization of capillary trapped oil. We show how double displacement of reservoir fluids can contribute to mobilize oil that are capillary trapped after waterflooding. In particular, we elaborate how the physics of colloidal dispersion gels (CDG) or linked polymer solutions (LPS) is implemented. The linked polymer solutions consist of low concentration partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymer crosslinked with aluminum citrate. Laboratory core floods have shown demonstrated increased oil recovery by injection of linked polymer solution systems. LPS consist of roughly spherical particles with sizes in the nanometer range (50–150 nm). The LPS process involve mechanisms such as change in rheological properties effect, adsorption and entrapment processes that can lead to a microscopic diversion and mobilization of waterflood trapped oil. The purpose is to model the physical processes occurring on pore scale during injection of linked polymer solutions. A sensitivity study has also been performed on trapped oil saturation with respect to wettability status to analyze the efficiency of LPS on different wettability conditions. The network modeling results suggest that weakly wet reservoirs are more suitable candidates for performing linked polymer solution injection.     

A Dynamic Network Model for Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

We present a dynamic model of immiscible two-phase flow in a network representation of a porous medium. The model is based on the governing equations describing two-phase flow in porous media, and can handle both drainage, imbibition, and steady-state displacement. Dynamic wetting layers in corners of the pore space are incorporated, with focus on modeling resistivity measurements on saturated rocks at different capillary numbers. The flow simulations are performed on a realistic network of a sandpack which is perfectly water-wet. Our numerical results show saturation profiles for imbibition in agreement with experiments. For free spontaneous imbibition we find that the imbibition rate follows the Washburn relation, i.e., the water saturation increases proportionally to the square root of time. We also reproduce rate effects in the resistivity index for drainage and imbibition.     

Problem of Oil Displacement by Gas Mixtures

The system of equations of one-dimensional flow of a multicomponent mixture with phase transitions through a porous medium is considered. In particular, this system describes the processes of enhanced oil recovery by injection of gases. For this system self-similar solutions of the Riemann problem of discontinuity breakdown are constructed by splitting the problem into physicochemical and hydrodynamic problems.Main elements of the procedure for constructing the solution are illustrated with reference to a four-component system with constant distribution coefficients and the solutions obtained by different methods are compared. It is shown that the approach proposed is also effective for a system with a greater number of components.     

A Geometrical Pore Model for Estimating the Microscopical Pore Geometry of Soil with Infiltration Measurements

This paper presents a simple geometrical pore model designed to relate characteristic pore radii of the porous network of soils with macroscopic infiltration parameters. The model composed of a stack of spherical hollow elements is described with two radii values: the pore access radius and the actual pore radius. The model was compared to cylindrical pore models and its mathematical consistency was assessed. Soil sorptivity S and the second parameter A of the Philip infiltration equation (1957), have been determined by numerically simulated infiltration. A diagram and an empirical relation have been set in order to relate the pore access and pore radii to the infiltration parameters S and A. The consistency of the model was validated by comparing the predicted sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity values, with the widely used unsaturated soil hydraulic functions (van Genuchten, 1980). The model showed good agreement with experimental infiltration data, and it is therefore concluded that the use of a model with two radii improves the relation between microscopic pore size and macroscopic infiltration parameters.     

A New Model for Immiscible Displacement in Porous Media

Immiscible displacement is regarded as the superposition of forward flows of both water and oil, due to injection of water into the medium, and of additional forward flow of water coupled with reverse flow of oil, caused by the existence of capillary pressure gradients. The model has been evaluated numerically for the prediction of the evolution of saturation profiles in waterfloods covering a wide range of water injection rates. In agreement with experimentation, saturation profiles ranging from a completely flat shape to piston-shape, depending on the injection rate, have been obtained. Also in agreement with experimentation, numerical evaluation of the model for the case of a closed system with an initial step-function saturation profile has predicted a gradual spreading of the piston front into S-shaped profiles with an increasing variance. The final profile corresponds to uniform saturation everywhere in the medium.     

A Triple Pore Network Model (T-PNM) for Gas Flow Simulation in Fractured,Micro-porous and Meso-porous Media

Transport in Porous Media - In this study, a novel triple pore network model (T-PNM) is introduced which is composed of a single pore network model (PNM) coupled to fractures and micro-porosities....     

An Improved Pore Network Model for the Computation of the Saturated Permeability of Porous Rock

A model to estimate the permeability of a porous sample based on a 3D image of its pore space, obtained by X-ray computed tomography (CT) and applying a threshold algorithm on the CT image, is developed. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used to directly compute the saturated fluid flow in a sample. This is called the direct method. The direct method is relatively accurate, but computationally very expensive. Therefore, a new pore network approach is presented. Pore networks simplify the pore space to a network of nodes that are hydraulically connected by links. A finite difference CFD method is then applied to simulate the fluid flow inside the links and to compute the local permeability values of the links in the network according to Darcy’s law. As these links are relatively small, this demands less computational resources than a CFD simulation on the whole sample. Once the local permeabilities in the network are known, the permeability of the entire network can be calculated.     

A Similarity Solution for Oil Lens Redistribution Including Capillary Forces and Oil Entrapment

Redistribution of a LNAPL lens (oil) at the phreatic surface is described using a multi-phase flow model, with emphasis on the effect of oil entrapment by water. The flow process is analyzed under the assumption that the vertical capillary and gravitational forces balance. Vertical integration leads to explicit functions which approximate the relations between the free oil volume per unit lateral area and the vertically averaged oil relative permeability on the one hand and the vertical position of the interface between zones with either two or three phases on the other hand. A linear relation between the trapped and free oil volume per unit lateral area approximates the vertically integrated nonlinear expression for the trapped oil saturation. The resulting differential equation admits a similarity solution describing the lateral spreading of free oil and the amount and location of trapped oil. Comparison with illustrative numerical computations, which are based on the nonreduced flow model in a two-dimensional planar or axisymmetric domain, shows that the analytical solution provides a good approximation of the free oil distribution at all later times.     

A Model for Subsurface Oil Pollutant Migration

When considering three-dimensional groundwater flow, the hydrogeological community widely uses the MODFLOW model based on the head-oriented approach (HOA). However, a great deal of hydrogeological situations requires an extremely accurate assessment of the Darcy velocity in three dimensions. Despite the good numerical approximation of the piezometric head offered by MODFLOW, it does not guarantee sufficient accuracy in estimating all three components of the flow velocity. As an alternative, this article presents the MODFLOW-based velocity-oriented approach (VOA), which can approximate the three components of the groundwater velocity with high accuracy. The article gives comprehensive theoretical background and a comparison of the HOA and VOA approaches. Importantly, the authors show how the VOA equations with the VOA boundary conditions can be implemented and solved with MODFLOW. Recently, the VOA has become a basis for new version of MODFLOW. The two approaches are effectively combined and compared using Visual MODFLOW for a simple case of river–aquifer interaction.     

Effect of Convection on Formation of Adsorbed Surfactant Film under Dynamic Change of Solution Surface Area

The dynamics of the formation of a surface phase in aqueous solutions of surfactants in a tray with the Langmuir barrier system during one compression–expansion cycle of the interface boundary is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Organic salts of fatty acids such as potassium laurate, caprylate, and acetate, which are members of the same homologous series, were used as surfactants. It is experimentally determined that the dependence of the surface pressure increment measured under the maximum compression of the surface on the volume concentration has a maximum, the position of which is different for all the studied surfactant solutions. It is shown that the position of the maximum corresponds to the concentration value at which a saturated monolayer of surfactant molecules is formed at the interface boundary. A theoretical model that considers the effect of the forced convection arisen in the bulk of the solution upon changing the surface area is proposed for the interpretation of the experimental results. The model allows one to render the main kinetic characteristics of the adsorption/desorption processes involving the compounds under study. A good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results is observed, but there is a discrepancy between them when diffusion is considered to be the only way surfactant molecules are transferred into the bulk phase. Based on the data, a new method for determination of the Langmuir–Shishkovsky constant is proposed.     

A Study of the Behavior of Implicit Pressure Explicit Saturation (IMPES) Schedules for Two-phase Flow in Dynamic Pore Network Models

We focus on the numerical difficulties that typify implicit pressure explicit saturation (IMPES) schedules in dynamic “ball-and-stick” pore network models for two-phase flow. We show that a time stepping procedure based on a prescribed maximum variation of the local capillary pressure rather than on a (usual) maximum variation of the local saturation along with the addition in the solution algorithm of suitable “flow constraints” (in Koplik and Lasseter, Soc. Pet. Eng. J. 25(1):89–100, 1985) provide more stability and a significant run time speed up. In particular, the slow convergence and the oscillatory behavior that typify IMPES schemes at low Ca values due to capillary pinning are efficiently suppressed.     

基于单源模糊数的模糊随机动态有限元方程的解法

本文提出一种模糊随机动态有限元方程的解法,指出利用单源模糊数和它的运算法则,可以把一个不含阻尼项的模糊随机动态有限元平衡方程转化为两类不同集合下的方程组,一种是模糊数方程,另一种是普通的动态有限元平衡方程。前者可用模糊数运算法则求解。通常这类方程的表达式非常简单,故很容易求解,后者可利用现有的求解随机动态随机有限元平衡方程的方法计算,这时求解该方程的计算量几乎等同于求解相应的普通随机动态有限元平衡方程的计算量。最后的算例表明,本文提出的方法与通常所用的γ截集法计算结果基本相同,而且所用的计算量远远小于用γ截集法所用的计算量。     

Numerical Solution and Sensitivity Analysis of Pore Liquid Pressure and Cake Porosity to Model Parameters

Filter cake formation is important in groundwater and oil wells where drilling contains suspended mud particles. The accumulation of these mud particles on the borehole wall creates a pressure drop in the well. Furthermore, the migration of colloidal particles into adjacent porous rock could damage the formation and cause productivity decline. In this study, numerical solutions for pore liquid pressure variation across the cake with variable total stress and associated porosity variation are obtained. Mass equations for captured and suspended particles are averaged along the mud cake thickness, taking into account conditions on the cake surface and at the filter septum. The variability of total stress in soil consolidations problem is considered to determine the pore liquid pressure along the mud cake thickness. Then, the relation between porosity and pressure is studied to determine the mud cake porosity. Experimental data obtained by various researchers is used to compare and test the validity of numerical solutions to develop guidelines for model applications. Results show that the pore liquid pressure increases with the decrease of membrane impedance value (i.e. less pervious membrane). Also, the pressure profile has a cubic function of dimensionless cake thickness. The conclusions from the sensitivity analysis conducted in this study agree with earlier conclusions.     

双层球壳结构准静态线性化学弹性问题的位移势函数解

本文研究了各向同性固体的化学-力学耦合问题,在传统化学弹性理论描述的扩散-变形耦合关系基础上,进一步考虑了化学反应与固体变形的相互作用关系,发展了等温状态下固体-扩散-反应-变形耦合的线性化学弹性理论,拓展了化学弹性力学的应用范围．该理论能够同时描述固体内介质扩散和固体与介质之间化学反应两个不同时间尺度的化学过程,并给出由此引起的弹性范围内的应变和应力．为应用该模型求解具体化学弹性问题,本文通过构造扩散-反应位移势函数来获得位移特解形式,再与齐次Lamé方程通解叠加获得完整解;针对反应控制问题,引入化学弹性准静态假设,将反应-扩散-变形全耦合的瞬态过程分解为两个可解耦的相继过程,从而获得相应位移解．基于此解法,本文获得了反应控制的双层球壳结构化学弹性问题的解析解,并分析了化学反应、几何结构和弹性模量对应力分布的影响．     

A Class of Viscosity Profiles for Oil Displacement in Porous Media or Hele-Shaw Cell

This paper is devoted to the study of the stability of oil displacement in porous media. Results are applied to the secondary oil recovery process: the oil contained in a porous medium is obtained by pushing it with a second fluid (usually water). As in Saffman and Taylor (1958) and Gorell and Homsy (1983) the porous medium will be modelized by a Hele-Shaw cell. If the second fluid is less viscous, the fingering phenomenon appears, first studied by Saffman and Taylor (1959). In order to minimize this instability, we consider, as in Gorell and Homsy (1983), an intermediate polymer-solute region (i.r.), with a variable viscosity \mu , between water and oil. This viscosity increases from water to oil. The linear stability of the interfaces is governed by a Sturm–Liouville problem which contains eigenvalues in the boundary conditions. Its characteristic values are the growth constants of the perturbations. The stability can be improved by choosing a minimizing viscosity profile \mu which gives us an arbitrary small positive growth constant. In this paper, we suggest a class of minimizing profiles. This main result is obtained by considering the Rayleigh quotient to estimate – without any discretization – the characteristic values of the above Sturm–Liouville problem. A finite-difference procedure and Gerschgorins localization theorem were used by Carasso and Paa (1998) to solve the above problem. A formula of an exponential viscosity profile in (i.r.) was obtained. The new class of minimizing viscosity profiles described in this paper includes linear and exponential profiles. The corresponding total amount of polymer and the (i.r.) length are estimated in terms of the limit value of \mu on the (i.r.) – oil interface. Our results are compared with the previous theoretical viscosity profiles. We show that the linear case is more favorable compared with the exponential profile. We give lower estimates of the total amount of polymer and of the (i.r.) length for a given improvement of the stability , compared with the Saffman–Taylor case.     

A Pore Scale Model for Osmotic Flow: Homogenization and Lattice Boltzmann Simulations

Transport in Porous Media - Osmosis is the phenomenon of spontaneous passage of solvents through a membrane that is permeable to the solvent but is completely or partially impermeable to solute...