The Effect of Wettability Heterogeneity on Relative Permeability of Two‐Phase Flow in Porous Media: A Lattice Boltzmann Study

Zhao, Jianlin; Kang, Qinjun; Ye, Jun; Viswanathan, Hari; Pawar, Rajesh J.; Zhang, Lei; Sun, Hai

doi:10.1002/2017wr021443

Cited by 124 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(128 reference statements)

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“…The dimensionless lattice units are adopted in the LBM simulations. The properties in lattice units can be easily transferred into physical units given the time scale T 0 , length scale L 0 and mass scale M 0 (Zhao, Kang, Yao, Viswanathan, et al, ). For example, the kinematic viscosity of one fluid in physical unit can be calculated by

υ^{phy} = υ^{LBM} \frac{L_{0}^{2}}{T_{0}}

.…”

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LBM is a newly developed mesoscale simulation method which can be derived from the Boltzmann equation. It has been widely used in many areas, such as multiphase and multicomponent flow (Chen et al, ; Huang et al, ; Qin et al, ; Qin et al, ; Qin et al, ; Qin et al, ; Zhao et al, ), reactive flow (Kang et al, ), and thermal flow (Kang et al, ). Due to the high computational efficiency and kinetic physical basis, LBM has also been adopted to simulate pore‐scale shale gas flow in recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Viscous Dissipation and Apparent Permeability of Gas Flow in Nanoporous Media

Zhao

Kang

Youping³

et al. 2020

JGR Solid Earth

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The nanopore confinement effect can increase the mobility for gas flow in shale rocks, and the apparent permeability is usually adopted to account for this effect. However, most of the apparent permeability calculation models are derived based on straight channels (capillaries) and neglect the influence of end effect. The end effect is caused by the bending of streamlines which yields more viscous dissipation and additional flow resistance for gas flow in nanoporous media. In this paper, for the first time the viscous dissipation for gas flow in nanoporous media is analyzed. In addition, an improved apparent permeability calculation model is proposed based on the Beskok‐Karniadakis (B‐K) model by introducing the influence of end effect, which is characterized by the ratio of the length to the width of a short channel (L/H). The accuracy of this model is validated by lattice Boltzmann simulations of gas flow in three different geometries: an infinite‐length straight channel, a finite‐length straight channel, and nanoporous media. For the infinite‐length straight channel, there is no end effect therefore both the B‐K model and the improved model can well predict the apparent permeability. However, for the finite‐length straight channel and nanoporous media, the original B‐K model overestimates the gas apparent permeability as it neglects the influence of end effect, while the improved model can still well predict the gas apparent permeability. In summary, the improved apparent permeability calculation model is more reasonable in predicting gas mobility in nanoporous media.

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υ^{phy} = υ^{LBM} \frac{L_{0}^{2}}{T_{0}}

.…”

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viscous Dissipation and Apparent Permeability of Gas Flow in Nanoporous Media

Zhao

Kang

Youping³

et al. 2020

JGR Solid Earth

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In general, there are two methods to study on the change characteristics of permeability in porous media with gas hydrate, including simulated calculation and experimental measurement. Though some simulation methods such as lattice Boltzmann method can model fluid flow (Wei et al, ; Zhao et al, ), few of them can truly capture the real physics of hydrate dissociation process. The experimental study on the permeability of porous media with gas hydrate is urgently needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Effects of Heterogeneous Distribution of Methane Hydrate on Permeability of Porous Media Using Low‐Field NMR Technique

Hou

Zhao

et al. 2020

JGR Solid Earth

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The permeability of sediments is an important parameter that effects flow characteristics of the gas and water in the process of natural gas hydrates development. The distribution of gas hydrate is generally heterogeneous in porous media. It poses a great challenge to the permeability measurement of hydrate‐bearing sediments. To study the effect of heterogeneous distribution of methane hydrate on the permeability of porous media, methane hydrate formation in the sandstone and permeability measurement was carried out using a low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement system in situ conditions. The spatial distribution of methane hydrate in the core samples was determined by combining the T2 distribution with magnetic resonance imaging. The results show that the distribution of methane hydrate is heterogeneous in the core samples. The temporal and spatial variation of permeability happens in the process of hydrate dissociation. The heterogeneity of methane hydrate distribution severely affects the analysis of permeability change. Considering the heterogeneity of methane hydrate distribution, a new method was proposed to obtain the quantitative relationship between hydrate saturation and relative permeability based on magnetic resonance imaging and the equivalent seepage capacity method. The results show that the relative permeability models obtained by this method agree better with experimental results. The optimum coefficients of relative permeability models obtained by equivalent seepage capacity method change significantly in contrast with the direct fitting method. The variation of the optimum coefficient is up to 300% in this study. The model coefficients are related to the pore characteristic of hydrate‐free porous media.

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“…However, further research suggests that the wettability and topology of porous media can also significantly affect the displacement patterns apart from fluid properties and flow conditions. The characteristics of wettability have been well established [20][21][22][23][24][25][26], with an understanding of the mechanism where the displacement pattern generally becomes more compact as an invading fluid is further wetted to the medium due to the cooperative pore filling effect. The fingering pattern changes extensively as a result of corner flow with the wettability increase of invading fluid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fingering patterns in hierarchical porous media

2020

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Porous media with hierarchical structures are commonly encountered in both natural and synthetic materials, e.g., fractured rock formations, porous electrodes and fibrous materials, which generally consist of two or more distinguishable levels of pore structure with different characteristic lengths. The multiphase flow behaviours in hierarchical porous media have remained elusive. In this study, we investigate the influences of hierarchical structures in porous media on the dynamics of immiscible fingering during fluid-fluid displacement. By conducting a series of numerical simulations, we found that the immiscible fingering can be suppressed due to the existence of secondary porous structures. To characterise the fingering dynamics in hierarchical porous media, a phase diagram is constructed by introducing a scaling parameter, i.e., the ratio of time scales considering the combined effect of characteristic pore sizes and wettability. The findings present in this work provide a basis for further research on the application of hierarchical porous media for controlling immiscible fingerings.

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The Effect of Wettability Heterogeneity on Relative Permeability of Two‐Phase Flow in Porous Media: A Lattice Boltzmann Study

Cited by 124 publications

References 82 publications

Viscous Dissipation and Apparent Permeability of Gas Flow in Nanoporous Media

Viscous Dissipation and Apparent Permeability of Gas Flow in Nanoporous Media

Study on the Effects of Heterogeneous Distribution of Methane Hydrate on Permeability of Porous Media Using Low‐Field NMR Technique

Fingering patterns in hierarchical porous media

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