Preferential Paths of Air-water Two-phase Flow in Porous Structures with Special Consideration of Channel Thickness Effects

Abstract

Accurate understanding and predicting the flow paths of immiscible two-phase flow in rocky porous structures are of critical importance for the evaluation of oil or gas recovery and prediction of rock slides caused by gas-liquid flow. A 2D phase field model was established for compressible air-water two-phase flow in heterogenous porous structures. The dynamic characteristics of air-water two-phase interface and preferential paths in porous structures were simulated. The factors affecting the path selection of two-phase flow in porous structures were analyzed. Transparent physical models of complex porous structures were prepared using 3D printing technology. Tracer dye was used to visually observe the flow characteristics and path selection in air-water two-phase displacement experiments. The experimental observations agree with the numerical results used to validate the accuracy of phase field model. The effects of channel thickness on the air-water two-phase flow behavior and paths in porous structures were also analyzed. The results indicate that thick channels can induce secondary air flow paths due to the increase in flow resistance; consequently, the flow distribution is different from that in narrow channels. This study provides a new reference for quantitatively analyzing multi-phase flow and predicting the preferential paths of immiscible fluids in porous structures.

Influence of the fluid–fluid drag on the pressure drop in simulations of two-phase flows through porous flow cells

“…Many studies have focused on the displacement of bubbles and droplets in such cells (Maxworthy, 1986;Maruvada and Park, 1996;Kopf-Sill and Homsy, 1988) and the stability of the fluid front during the displacement of a fluid by another less viscous fluid (Saffman and Taylor, 1958;Bensimon, 1986;Meiburg and Homsy, 1988;Jackson et al, 2017;Cueto-Felgueroso and Juanes, 2014). The governing flow equations are analogous to Darcy's equation, therefore several studies used Hele-Shaw cells to gain insight about two-phase flow in porous media (Stokes et al, 1986;Homsy, 1987;Liu et al, 2019).…”

Multiphase Flow Modelling in Multiscale Porous Media: An Open-Sourced Micro-Continuum Approach

“…We attribute these slight differences to the differing implementations of the contact angle at the solid boundaries. We invite the interested reader to find this case in the accompanying toolbox and to refer to the extensive literature on this topic for further discussion on numerical and experimental studies of drainage and imbibition (Lenormand et al, 1988;Ferrari and Lunati, 2013;Datta et al, 2014;Roman et al, 2016;Zacharoudiou et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019;Singh, 2019) .…”

Modeling Multiphase Flow Within and Around Deformable Porous Materials: A Darcy-Brinkman-Biot Approach

“…We attribute these slight differences to the differing implementations of the contact angle at the solid boundaries. We invite interested readers to find this case in the accompanying toolbox and to refer to the extensive literature on this topic for further discussion on numerical and experimental studies of drainage and imbibition (Lenormand et al, 1988;Ferrari & Lunati, 2013;Datta et al, 2014;Roman et al, 2016;Zacharoudiou et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019;Singh, 2019) .…”