Dynamic Wettability Alteration in Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Porous Media: Effect on Transport Properties and Critical Slowing Down

Flovik, Vegard; Sinha, Santanu; Hansen, Alex

doi:10.3389/fphy.2015.00086

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…We leave for future work the problem of how other types of non-uniform wetting conditions can affect the rheology further. A mechanism for a correlated wettability distribution for pore-network modeling, where the wettability depends on the connected oil paths, was demonstrated previously by some of the authors of this manuscript (Flovik et al 2015) and may be adopted in future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…These experimental findings show the importance of understanding the effect of wettability even further, which is easier to do through analytical and numerical studies where large range of wetting conditions can be examined in short time. In the papers by Sinha et al (2011) and Flovik et al (2015), pore network models similar to the one used in the present article were used to investigate the effect of wettability alteration due to changes in salinity in oil-brine mixtures. The wettability alterations were done by changing between either complete wetting and complete non-wetting conditions in the first article (Sinha et al 2011), and by changing the wetting angles continuously between two limits depending on the cumulative flow of the wetting phase in the second article (Flovik et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the papers by Sinha et al (2011) and Flovik et al (2015), pore network models similar to the one used in the present article were used to investigate the effect of wettability alteration due to changes in salinity in oil-brine mixtures. The wettability alterations were done by changing between either complete wetting and complete non-wetting conditions in the first article (Sinha et al 2011), and by changing the wetting angles continuously between two limits depending on the cumulative flow of the wetting phase in the second article (Flovik et al 2015). The results from both show that local alterations of the wettability introduce qualitative changes in the flow patterns by destabilizing the trapped clusters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rheology of Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Mixed Wet Porous Media: Dynamic Pore Network Model and Capillary Fiber Bundle Model Results

et al. 2021

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Immiscible two-phase flow in porous media with mixed wet conditions was examined using a capillary fiber bundle model, which is analytically solvable, and a dynamic pore network model. The mixed wettability was implemented in the models by allowing each tube or link to have a different wetting angle chosen randomly from a given distribution. Both models showed that mixed wettability can have significant influence on the rheology in terms of the dependence of the global volumetric flow rate on the global pressure drop. In the capillary fiber bundle model, for small pressure drops when only a small fraction of the tubes were open, it was found that the volumetric flow rate depended on the excess pressure drop as a power law with an exponent equal to 3/2 or 2 depending on the minimum pressure drop necessary for flow. When all the tubes were open due to a high pressure drop, the volumetric flow rate depended linearly on the pressure drop, independent of the wettability. In the transition region in between where most of the tubes opened, the volumetric flow depended more sensitively on the wetting angle distribution function and was in general not a simple power law. The dynamic pore network model results also showed a linear dependence of the flow rate on the pressure drop when the pressure drop is large. However, out of this limit the dynamic pore network model demonstrated a more complicated behavior that depended on the mixed wettability condition and the saturation. In particular, the exponent relating volumetric flow rate to the excess pressure drop could take on values anywhere between 1.0 and 1.8. The values of the exponent were highest for saturations approaching 0.5, also, the exponent generally increased when the difference in wettability of the two fluids were larger and when this difference was present for a larger fraction of the porous network.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rheology of Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Mixed Wet Porous Media: Dynamic Pore Network Model and Capillary Fiber Bundle Model Results

et al. 2021

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“…We also note that important phenomena such as wetting angle hysteresis is straight-forward to implement but it has not been included so far. However, wetting angle alteration due to changes in the composition of the immiscible fluids has been considered in the past [50,51].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Dynamic Network Simulator for Immiscible Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

Sinha¹,

Gjennestad²,

Vassvik³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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We present in detail a set of algorithms to carry out fluid displacements in a dynamic pore-network model of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. The algorithms are general and applicable to regular and irregular pore networks in two and three dimensions with different boundary conditions. Implementing these sets of algorithms, we describe a dynamic pore-network model and reproduce some of the fundamental properties of both the transient and steady-state two-phase flow. During drainage displacements, we show that the model can reproduce the flow patterns corresponding to viscous fingering, capillary fingering and stable displacement by altering the capillary number and the viscosity ratio. In steady-state flow, the model verifies the linear to non-linear transition of the effective rheological properties and satisfy the relations between the seepage velocities of two-phase flow in porous media.

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“…It is found that the increase in water wetness during water ooding leads to a higher oil recovery and less accumulated production water at a water cut. Flovik et al (2015) modeled the change in contact angles due to the injection of wettability altering agent in an oil-rich porous medium by a network of disordered pores transporting two immiscible uids [21]. In this article, the authors introduced a dynamic wettability altering mechanism, where the time dependent wetting property of each pore is determined by the cumulative ow of water through it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Validation of Chemical Compositional Model for Wettability Alteration Processes

2017

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Chemical compositional simulation of enhanced oil recovery and surfactant enhanced aquifer remediation processes is a complex task that involves solving dozens of equations for all grid blocks representing a reservoir. In the present work, we perform a numerical validation of the newly developed mathematical formulation which satises the conservation laws of mass and energy and allows applying a sequential solution approach to solve the governing equations separately and implicitly. Through its application to the numerical experiment using a wettability alteration model and comparisons with existing chemical compositional model's numerical results, the new model has proven to be practical, reliable and stable.

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Dynamic Wettability Alteration in Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Porous Media: Effect on Transport Properties and Critical Slowing Down

Cited by 9 publications

References 28 publications

Rheology of Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Mixed Wet Porous Media: Dynamic Pore Network Model and Capillary Fiber Bundle Model Results

Rheology of Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Mixed Wet Porous Media: Dynamic Pore Network Model and Capillary Fiber Bundle Model Results

A Dynamic Network Simulator for Immiscible Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media

Numerical Validation of Chemical Compositional Model for Wettability Alteration Processes

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