NDLI: Pore-Scale Network Modeling of Three-Phase Flow Based on Thermodynamically Consistent Threshold Capillary Pressures. I. Cusp Formation and Collapse

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Zolfaghari, Arsalan Piri, Mohammad
Copyright Year	2017
Abstract	We present a pore-scale network model of two- and three-phase flow in disordered porous media. The model reads three-dimensional pore networks representing the pore space in different porous materials. It simulates wide range of two- and three-phase pore-scale displacements in porous media with mixed-wet wettability. The networks are composed of pores and throats with circular and angular cross sections. The model allows the presence of multiple phases in each angular pore. It uses Helmholtz free energy balance and Mayer–Stowe–Princen (MSP) method to compute threshold capillary pressures for two- and three-phase displacements (fluid configuration changes) based on pore wettability, pore geometry, interfacial tension, and initial pore fluid occupancy. In particular, it generates thermodynamically consistent threshold capillary pressures for wetting and spreading fluid layers resulting from different displacement events. Threshold capillary pressure equations are presented for various possible fluid configuration changes. By solving the equations for the most favorable displacements, we show how threshold capillary pressures and final fluid configurations may vary with wettability, shape factor, and the maximum capillary pressure reached during preceding displacement processes. A new cusp pore fluid configuration is introduced to handle the connectivity of the intermediate wetting phase at low saturations and to improve model’s predictive capabilities. Based on energy balance and geometric equations, we show that, for instance, a gas-to-oil piston-like displacement in an angular pore can result in a pore fluid configuration with no oil, with oil layers, or with oil cusps. Oil layers can then collapse to form cusps. Cusps can shrink and disappear leaving no oil behind. Different displacement mechanisms for layer and cusp formation and collapse based on the MSP analysis are implemented in the model. We introduce four different layer collapse rules. A selected collapse rule may generate different corner configuration depending on fluid occupancies of the neighboring elements and capillary pressures. A new methodology based on the MSP method is introduced to handle newly created gas/water interfaces that eliminates inconsistencies in relation between capillary pressures and pore fluid occupancies. Minimization of Helmholtz free energy for each relevant displacement enables the model to accurately determine the most favorable displacement, and hence, improve its predictive capabilities for relative permeabilities, capillary pressures, and residual saturations. The results indicate that absence of oil cusps and the previously used geometric criterion for the collapse of oil layers could yield lower residual oil saturations than the experimentally measured values in two- and three-phase systems.
Starting Page	1093
Ending Page	1137
Page Count	45
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01693913
Journal	Transport in Porous Media
Volume Number	116
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	15731634
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2017-01-21
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Wetting and spreading oil layers Relative permeability Spreading and non-spreading three-phase systems Threshold capillary pressures Two- and three-phase flow in porous media Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Hydrology/Water Resources Civil Engineering Hydrogeology Classical and Continuum Physics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Catalysis

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