History independence of steady state in simultaneous two-phase flow through two-dimensional porous media

Abstract

It is well known that the transient behavior during drainage or imbibition in multiphase flow in porous media strongly depends on the history and initial condition of the system. However, when the steady-state regime is reached and both drainage and imbibition take place at the pore level, the influence of the evolution history and initial preparation is an open question. Here, we present an extensive experimental and numerical work investigating the history dependence of simultaneous steady-state two-phase flow through porous media. Our experimental system consists of a Hele-Shaw cell filled with glass beads which we model numerically by a network of disordered pores transporting two immiscible fluids. From measurements of global pressure evolution, histograms of saturation, and cluster-size distributions, we find that when both phases are flowing through the porous medium, the steady state does not depend on the initial preparation of the system or on the way it has been reached.

Steady-state two-phase relative permeability functions of porous media: A revisit

“…2013), and secondarily by systematic experimental approaches in model porous media Payatakes, 1995a, 1999;Tsakiroglou et al, 2007;Gutierez et al, 2008;Tallakstad et al, 2009aTallakstad et al, , 2009bErpelding et al, 2013). One of the main conclusions is that the wetting fluid (water) retains its connectivity along its flow path while the nonwetting fluid (oil) may move either as a connected pathway or as a population of disconnected ganglia which undergo dynamic breakup and coalescence (Avraam and Payatakes, 1995a;Constantinides and Payatakes, 1996;Valavanides et al, 1998;Tallakstad et al, 2009aTallakstad et al, , 2009bYiotis et al, 2013).…”

Ensemble distribution for immiscible two-phase flow in porous media

“…The non-wetting fluid will form bubbles that fill the cross-sectional area of the We will consider steady-state flow [49]. Experimentally, this is attained when the two immiscible fluids are injected simultaneously into the porous medium with all control parameters kept constant and all measured macroscopic quantities fluctuate around well-defined and constant averages.…”

Film flow dominated simultaneous flow of two viscous incompressible fluids through a porous medium

“…Tallakstad et al [32,33] carried out associated quasi-two-dimensional experiments, using a porous Hele-Shaw cell, obtaining a power-law relation between the measured steady-state pressure difference over the cell and the applied flow rate. In a continuation of this work, [34] investigated the history dependence of the steady-state configurations observed, by increasing and decreasing the flow rates during an experiment.…”