Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow
Viscous fingering is the occurrence of narrow fingers of an invading less viscous fluid such as water in a porous medium filled with a more viscous fluid such as oil, and its occurrence dramatically affects enhanced oil recovery by water flooding. We conduct 2D simulations using the lattice Boltzman...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138228.3 |
| _version_ | 1826198303669223424 |
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| author | Mora, Peter Morra, Gabriele Yuen, Dave A. Juanes, Ruben |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Mora, Peter Morra, Gabriele Yuen, Dave A. Juanes, Ruben |
| author_sort | Mora, Peter |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Viscous fingering is the occurrence of narrow fingers of an invading less viscous fluid such as water in a porous medium filled with a more viscous fluid such as oil, and its occurrence dramatically affects enhanced oil recovery by water flooding. We conduct 2D simulations using the lattice Boltzmann method for two-phase flow through a porous medium initially saturated with a fluid of a given viscosity in which a fluid of another viscosity is injected from the left side of the model. We conduct suites of simulations over viscosity ratios (∼1 / (mobility ratio)) from M = 0.01 through M = 100 and for wetting angles from non-wetting to fully wetting. We plot the phase space of saturation (= Recovery Factor) versus wetting angle and viscosity ratio. We remove the dominant viscosity ratio effect to study the effect of wetting angle and find that while there is some tendency for the saturation to be higher with increasing wettability, the saturation landscape is complex with hills and valleys in which optimal wetting angles exist that maximize saturation. Furthermore, the phase space landscape is found to depend on the porous matrix geometry. We also plot saturation post-breakthrough and find that the saturation continues to increase albeit at an ever decreasing rate. This research demonstrates the potential of the lattice Boltzmann method for two-phase flow to reveal unexpected behavior and phenomena with both scientific and practical significance such as optimization of recovery factors in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:02:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/138228.3 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:02:45Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/138228.32022-03-29T15:46:06Z Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow Mora, Peter Morra, Gabriele Yuen, Dave A. Juanes, Ruben Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Viscous fingering is the occurrence of narrow fingers of an invading less viscous fluid such as water in a porous medium filled with a more viscous fluid such as oil, and its occurrence dramatically affects enhanced oil recovery by water flooding. We conduct 2D simulations using the lattice Boltzmann method for two-phase flow through a porous medium initially saturated with a fluid of a given viscosity in which a fluid of another viscosity is injected from the left side of the model. We conduct suites of simulations over viscosity ratios (∼1 / (mobility ratio)) from M = 0.01 through M = 100 and for wetting angles from non-wetting to fully wetting. We plot the phase space of saturation (= Recovery Factor) versus wetting angle and viscosity ratio. We remove the dominant viscosity ratio effect to study the effect of wetting angle and find that while there is some tendency for the saturation to be higher with increasing wettability, the saturation landscape is complex with hills and valleys in which optimal wetting angles exist that maximize saturation. Furthermore, the phase space landscape is found to depend on the porous matrix geometry. We also plot saturation post-breakthrough and find that the saturation continues to increase albeit at an ever decreasing rate. This research demonstrates the potential of the lattice Boltzmann method for two-phase flow to reveal unexpected behavior and phenomena with both scientific and practical significance such as optimization of recovery factors in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0019759) National Science Foundation (Grant EAR-1918126) 2022-03-29T15:46:05Z 2021-11-29T15:55:43Z 2021-11-29T18:18:02Z 2022-03-29T15:46:05Z 2021-11 2021-04 2021-11-26T05:04:56Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1866-7538 1866-7511 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138228.3 Mora, Peter et al. "Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow." Arabian Journal of Geosciences 14, 23 (November 2021): 2645. © 2021 Saudi Society for Geosciences en https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-08683-y Arabian Journal of Geosciences Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Saudi Society for Geosciences application/octet-stream Springer Science and Business Media LLC Springer International Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Mora, Peter Morra, Gabriele Yuen, Dave A. Juanes, Ruben Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow |
| title | Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow |
| title_full | Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow |
| title_fullStr | Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow |
| title_full_unstemmed | Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow |
| title_short | Phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre- and post-breakthrough using lattice Boltzmann simulations of two-phase flow |
| title_sort | phase space study of viscous fingering and saturation pre and post breakthrough using lattice boltzmann simulations of two phase flow |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138228.3 |
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