School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
School of Science & Engineering, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BX, United Kingdom.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 4;7(1):4584. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04545-4.
Multiphase flow in porous media is important in a number of environmental and industrial applications such as soil remediation, CO sequestration, and enhanced oil recovery. Wetting properties control flow of immiscible fluids in porous media and fluids distribution in the pore space. In contrast to the strong and weak wet conditions, pore-scale physics of immiscible displacement under intermediate-wet conditions is less understood. This study reports the results of a series of two-dimensional high-resolution direct numerical simulations with the aim of understanding the pore-scale dynamics of two-phase immiscible fluid flow under intermediate-wet conditions. Our results show that for intermediate-wet porous media, pore geometry has a strong influence on interface dynamics, leading to co-existence of concave and convex interfaces. Intermediate wettability leads to various interfacial movements which are not identified under imbibition or drainage conditions. These pore-scale events significantly influence macro-scale flow behaviour causing the counter-intuitive decline in recovery of the defending fluid from weak imbibition to intermediate-wet conditions.
多相流在多孔介质中在许多环境和工业应用中都很重要，例如土壤修复、CO2 封存和提高石油采收率。润湿性控制着多孔介质中不混相流体的流动和流体在孔隙空间中的分布。与强湿润和弱湿润条件相比，中间湿润条件下的不混相驱替的孔隙尺度物理现象还不太了解。本研究报告了一系列二维高分辨率直接数值模拟的结果，目的是了解中间湿润条件下两相不混相流体流动的孔隙尺度动力学。我们的结果表明，对于中间湿润的多孔介质，孔隙几何形状对界面动力学有很强的影响，导致凹面和凸面界面共存。中间润湿性导致各种界面运动，这些运动在吸入或排水条件下无法识别。这些孔隙尺度事件显著影响宏观流动行为，导致从弱吸入到中间湿润条件下保护流体采收率的反直觉下降。
