Characterization of Transport-Enhanced Phase Separation in Porous Media Using a Lattice-Boltzmann Method

Phase separation of formation fluids in the subsurface introduces hydrodynamic perturbations which are critical for mass and energy transport of geofluids. Here, we present pore-scale lattice-Boltzmann simulations to investigate the hydrodynamical response of a porous system to the emergence of non-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geofluids 2019-01, Vol.2019 (2019), p.1-13
Main Authors: Habib, Faraz, Leclaire, Sébastien, Di Palma, Paolo Roberto, Parmigiani, Andrea, Kong, Xiang-Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Clogging
Computational fluid dynamics
Convective transport
Decomposition
Droplets
Energy transport
Evolution
Fluids
Hydraulic gradient
Hydraulics
Hydrodynamics
Membrane permeability
Methods
Permeability
Phase separation
Porous media
Saturation
Sediments
Separation
Simulation
Transport
Wetting
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Summary:Phase separation of formation fluids in the subsurface introduces hydrodynamic perturbations which are critical for mass and energy transport of geofluids. Here, we present pore-scale lattice-Boltzmann simulations to investigate the hydrodynamical response of a porous system to the emergence of non-wetting droplets under background hydraulic gradients. A wide parameter space of capillary number and fluid saturation is explored to characterize the droplet evolution, the droplet size and shape distribution, and the capillary-clogging patterns. We find that clogging is favored by high capillary stress; nonetheless, clogging occurs at high non-wetting saturation (larger than 0.3), denoting the importance of convective transport on droplet growth and permeability. Moreover, droplets are more sheared at low capillary number; however, solid matrix plays a key role on droplet’s volume-to-surface ratio.
ISSN:1468-8115
1468-8123
DOI:10.1155/2019/5176410