Equivalent hydraulic conductivity, connectivity and percolation in 2D and 3D random binary media

Colecchio, Iván; Otero, Alejandro D.; Nœtinger, B.; Boschan, Alejandro

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2021.104040

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Como perspectiva, consideramos de sumo interés evaluar la dependencia de K eq con la escala de agregación 𝜆 para medios compuestos por múltiples componentes geológicas o facies (por ejemplo arenas-arcillas) conocidos como medios binarios, y en medios con diferentes estructuras de conectividad (como los estudiados en [16]), de forma tal de realizar una descripción realista del subsuelo.…”

Section: Conclusionesunclassified

Connectivity and upscaling for water and hydrocarbon reservoir simulation

Gonzalez Litardo,

Picighelli,

Colecchio

et al. 2023

Proceedings of the 21th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education and Technology (LACCEI 2023): “Leaders

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reservoir simulation is key to study subsurface flow and transport, and is widely used in energetic and environmental applications. Usually, it is computationally expensive to perform simulations directly on the fine grid given by geophysical prospecting. This makes it necessary to perform an upscaling procedure to map the fine grid permeability k(r) onto an equivalent permeability (K eq ) defined on a coarser simulation mesh. Since the connectivity of the highest permeability classes or components strongly determines the flow structure in the reservoir, characterizing its influence on K eq is crucial. In this work, a stochastic approach is used on 3D synthetic reservoirs with a lognormal distribution of k(r). The variation of the probability density function (pdf) of K eq and of its Gaussian moments (mean, variance) is analyzed here as a function of the coarsening scale , λ considering the following parameters that characterize the connectivity of k(r) on the fine grid: its correlation length l c , its variance 𝜎 f 2 , and a connectivity structure: low, intermediate or high. Our results show that, even considering only reservoirs with a lognormal distribution of k(r), the existing predictions on K eq (λ)for multigaussian media require profound reformulation to describe more complex connectivity scenarios.

show abstract

Section: Conclusionesunclassified

Connectivity and upscaling for water and hydrocarbon reservoir simulation

Gonzalez Litardo,

Picighelli,

Colecchio

et al. 2023

Proceedings of the 21th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education and Technology (LACCEI 2023): “Leaders

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Effects of macro-scale heterogeneity on the kinetic interface-sensitive tracer test for measuring the fluid–fluid interfacial area in dynamic two-phase flow in porous media

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A novel reactive smart tracer method, termed the kinetic interface-sensitive (KIS) tracer test, has been demonstrated in laboratory column experiments to enable measurement of the specific capillary-associated fluid–fluid interfacial area in dynamic two-phase flow displacement processes in porous media. Development of the tracer method towards effective application in real field conditions requires investigation of the influence of the porous media heterogeneity on the front size and the specific interfacial area, and, consequently, in how far a kinetic interface-sensitive tracer experiment, and the corresponding breakthrough curves, are affected. This study employs a two-dimensional Darcy-scale two-phase flow reactive transport model to investigate numerically the KIS tracer transport in heterogeneous porous media. Simulations were carried out for the primary drainage process in a domain formed of fine and coarse porous media. Various heterogeneity patterns, having different numbers of inclusions and different geometrical distributions, were studied. It is shown that the shape of the breakthrough curves can be used as an indicator for quantifying the displacement front roughness, the specific interfacial area in the domain, and the domain heterogeneity, e.g., the existence of preferential flow pathways inside the porous media. The results indicate that when the displacement front roughness is small, the concentration breakthrough curves exhibit a linear increase. The slopes of the breakthrough curves linearly depend on the fraction of the bulk volume occupied by the low-permeability sand inclusions. The volume-averaged specific interfacial area and the size of the transition zone can be determined from the slopes of the breakthrough curves.

show abstract

Estimating hydraulic conductivity correlation lengths of an aquitard by inverse geostatistical modelling of a pumping test

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aquitards are common hydrogeological features in the subsurface. Typically, pumping tests are used to parameterize the hydraulic conductivity of heterogeneous aquitards. However, they do not take spatial variability and uncertainty into account. Alternatively, core-scale measurements of hydraulic conductivity are used in geostatistical upscaling methods, for which their correlation lengths are needed, but this information is extremely difficult to obtain. This study investigates whether a pumping test can be used to obtain the correlation lengths needed for geostatistical upscaling and account for the uncertainty about heterogeneous aquitard conductivity. Random realizations are generated from core-scale data with varying correlation lengths and inserted into a groundwater flow model which simulates the outcome of an actual pumping test. The realizations yielded a better fit to the pumping test data than the traditional pumping test result, assuming homogeneous layers are selected. Ranges of horizontal and vertical correlation lengths that fit the pumping-test well are found. However, considerable uncertainty regarding the correlation lengths remains, which should be considered when parameterizing a regional groundwater flow model.

show abstract

Equivalent hydraulic conductivity, connectivity and percolation in 2D and 3D random binary media

Cited by 10 publications

References 48 publications

Connectivity and upscaling for water and hydrocarbon reservoir simulation

Connectivity and upscaling for water and hydrocarbon reservoir simulation

Effects of macro-scale heterogeneity on the kinetic interface-sensitive tracer test for measuring the fluid–fluid interfacial area in dynamic two-phase flow in porous media

Estimating hydraulic conductivity correlation lengths of an aquitard by inverse geostatistical modelling of a pumping test

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About