MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF A TWO-PHASE FLOW IN AN UNSATURATED POROUS MEDIA
Abstract
Relative permeability is a significant transport property which describes the simultaneous
low of immiscible fluids in porous media. A pore-scale physical model is
eveloped for the two-phase immiscible flow in an unsaturated porous media according
o the statistically fractal scaling laws of natural porous media, and a predictive
alculation of two-phase relative permeability is presented by Monte Carlo
imulation. The tortuosity is introduced to characterize the highly irregular and
onvoluted property of capillary pathways for fluid flow through a porous medium.
he computed relative permeabilities are compared with empirical formulas and
xperimental measurements to validate the current model. The effect of fractal dimensions
nd saturation on the relative permeabilities is also discussed.
Dates
- Submission Date2012-08-01
- Revision Date2012-09-08
- Acceptance Date2012-09-10
References
- Bear, J., Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media, Elsevier, New York, USA, 1972
- Bryant, S., Blunt, M., Prediction of Relative Permeability in Simple Porous Media, Physical Review A, 46 (1992), 4, pp. 2004-2011
- Tuli, A., et al., Comparison of Air and Water Permeability between Disturbed and Undisturbed Soils, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 69 (2005), 5, pp. 1361-1371
- Abaci, S., et al., Relative Permeability Measurements for Two Phase Flow in Unconsolidated Sands, Mine Water and The Environment, 11 (1992), 2, pp. 11-26
- Brooks, R. J., Corey, A. T., Hydraulic Properties of Porous Media, Hydrology Paper 3, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Col., USA, 1964
- van Gchuchten, M. T., A Closed-Form Equation for Predicting the Hydraulic Conductivity of Unsaturated Soils, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 44 (1980), 5, pp. 892-898
- Huang, H., Lu, X.-Y., Relative Permeabilities and Coupling Effects in Steady-State Gas-Liquid Flow in Porous Media: a Lattice Boltzmann Study, Physics of Fluids, 21 (2009), 9, pp. 092104
- Katz, A. J., Thompson, A. H., Fractal Sandstone Pores: Implications for Conductivity and Pore Formation, Physical Review Letters, 54 (1985), 12, pp. 1325-1328
- Xu, Y. F., Dong, P., Fractal Approach to Hydraulic Properties in Unsaturated Porous Media, Chaos Solitons Fractals, 19 (2004), 2, pp. 327-337
- Yu, B.M., et al., Permeabilities of Unsaturated Fractal Porous Media, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 29 (2003), 10, pp. 1625-1642
- Cihan, A., et al., Predicting Relative Permeability from Water Retention: a Direct Approach based on Fractal Geometry, Water Resources Research, 45 (2009), W04404
- Yu, B. M., Analysis of Flow in Fractal Porous Media, Applied Mechanics Reviews, 61 (2008), 5, pp. 050801
- Burdine, N. T., Relative Permeability Calculations from Pore Size Distribution Data, Petroleum Transactions AIME, 5 (1953), 3, pp. 71-78
- Jerauld, G. R., Salter, S. J., The Effect of Pore-Structure on Hysteresis in Relative Permeability and Capillary Pressure: Pore-Level Modeling, Transport in Porous Media, 5 (1990), 2, pp. 103-151
- Mahiya, G. F., Experimental Measurement of Steam-Water Relative Permeability, Ms. D. thesis, Stanford University, California, USA, 1999
Volume
16,
Issue
5,
Pages1382 -1385