Vanishing capillarity solutions of Buckley–Leverett equation with gravity in two-rocks’ medium

For the hyperbolic conservation laws with discontinuous-flux function, there may exist several consistent notions of entropy solutions; the difference between them lies in the choice of the coupling across the flux discontinuity interface. In the context of Buckley–Leverett equations, each notion of solution is uniquely determined by the choice of a “connection,” which is the unique stationary solution that takes the form of an under-compressive shock at the interface. To select the appropriate connection, following Kaasschieter (Comput Geosci 3(1):23–48, 1999), we use the parabolic model with small parameter that accounts for capillary effects. While it has been recognized in Cancès (Networks Het Media 5(3):635–647, 2010) that the “optimal” connection and the “barrier” connection may appear at the vanishing capillarity limit, we show that the intermediate connections can be relevant and the right notion of solution depends on the physical configuration. In particular, we stress the fact that the “optimal” entropy condition is not always the appropriate one (contrarily to the erroneous interpretation of Kaasschieter’s results which is sometimes encountered in the literature). We give a simple procedure that permits to determine the appropriate connection in terms of the flux profiles and capillary pressure profiles present in the model. This information is used to construct a finite volume numerical method for the Buckley–Leverett equation with interface coupling that retains information from the vanishing capillarity model. We support the theoretical result with numerical examples that illustrate the high efficiency of the algorithm.     

On the derivation of the Buckley—Leverett model from the two fluid Navier—Stokes equations in a thin domain

We consider a two-phase incompressible immiscible flow, with neglected surface tension, in a thin domain. Using the method of asymptotic expansions with respect to the thickness of the domain, effective 1D equations are derived. Supposing that the fluids are strictly separated at t=0, we show that the derived equations equal the Buckley–Leverett equation for the saturation, in conjunction with the Reynolds law for each of the flowing phases. The fractional flow curve and corresponding relative permeabilities are determined explicitly and their heuristically observed properties verified.     

Solving the Buckley–Leverett equation with gravity in a heterogeneous porous medium

Immiscible two‐phase flow in porous media can be described by the fractional flow model. If capillary forces are neglected, then the saturation equation is a non‐linear hyperbolic conservation law, known as the Buckley–Leverett equation. This equation can be numerically solved by the method of Godunov, in which the saturation is computed from the solution of Riemann problems at cell interfaces. At a discontinuity of permeability this solution has to be constructed from two flux functions. In order to determine a unique solution an entropy inequality is needed. In this article an entropy inequality is derived from a regularisation procedure, where the physical capillary pressure term is added to the Buckley‐Leverett equation. This entropy inequality determines unique solutions of Riemann problems for all initial conditions. It leads to a simple recipe for the computation of interface fluxes for the method of Godunov. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Higher resolution total velocity <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vt</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Va</Emphasis> finite-volume formulations on cell-centred structured and unstructured grids

Novel cell-centred finite-volume formulations are presented for incompressible and immiscible two-phase flow with both gravity and capillary pressure effects on structured and unstructured grids. The Darcy-flux is approximated by a control-volume distributed multipoint flux approximation (CVD-MPFA) coupled with a higher resolution approximation for convective transport. The CVD-MPFA method is used for Darcy-flux approximation involving pressure, gravity, and capillary pressure flux operators. Two IMPES formulations for coupling the pressure equation with fluid transport are presented. The first is based on the classical total velocity Vt fractional flow (Buckley Leverett) formulation, and the second is based on a more recent Va formulation. The CVD-MPFA method is employed for both Vt and Va formulations. The advantages of both coupled formulations are contrasted. The methods are tested on a range of structured and unstructured quadrilateral and triangular grids. The tests show that the resulting methods are found to be comparable for a number of classical cases, including channel flow problems. However, when gravity is present, flow regimes are identified where the Va formulation becomes locally unstable, in contrast to the total velocity formulation. The test cases also show the advantages of the higher resolution method compared to standard first-order single-point upstream weighting.     

Analysis of models of oil-by-water displacement through the microstructure

Two major arrangements describing the oil-by-water displacement process, i.e., Muskat’s model without taking into account the surface tension on the free boundary and the Buckley–Leverett model based on the surface tension, are considered. These arrangements were subject to theoretical and numerical study, which made it possible to uncover their self-contradictoriness. The focus was on construction of a numerical solution at the microlevel using the direct method with pressure correction.     

Modeling compositional compressible two-phase flow in porous media by the concept of the global pressure

We derive a new formulation for the compositional compressible two-phase flow in porous media. We consider a liquid–gas system with two components: water and hydrogen. The formulation considers gravity, capillary effects, and diffusivity of each component. The main feature of this formulation is the introduction of the global pressure variable that partially decouples the system equations. To formulate the final system, and in order to avoid primary unknowns changing between one-phase and two-phase zones, a second persistent variable is introduced: the total hydrogen mass density. The derived system is written in terms of the global pressure and the total hydrogen mass density. The system is capable of modeling the flows in both one and two-phase zones with no changes of the primary unknowns. The mathematical structure is well defined: the system consists of two nonlinear parabolic equations, the global pressure equation, and the total hydrogen mass density equation. The derived formulation is fully equivalent to the original one. Numerical simulations show ability of this new formulation to model efficiently the phase appearance and disappearance.     

考虑气相影响的降雨入渗过程分析研究

降雨入渗过程是水在下渗的过程中驱替空气的水-气二相流过程,对这一过程的精确模拟一直是渗流计算的难点,目前的处理方法通常是忽略孔隙气压力变化的影响。根据多相流理论,结合质量守恒定律和达西定律,建立了水-气二相流模型,模型的求解采用积分有限差分法和Newton-Raphson迭代方法,通过变换主要变量来表达相态的变化,实现了水相、气相边界条件及降雨入渗边界的精确模拟。利用上述模型对一土柱试验进行模拟,从而验证了模型的正确性,研究了一均质土层的降雨入渗过程,得到了孔隙水压力、孔隙气压力和毛细压力及含水率的变化过程。根据入渗率与地表孔隙气压力的变化关系,验证了孔隙气压力的增大对入渗水流产生阻滞作用。在求解非稳定渗流问题中,考虑空气压力变化的影响是值得研究的。     

Finite volume approximation for an immiscible two-phase flow in porous media with discontinuous capillary pressure

We consider an immiscible incompressible two-phase flow in a porous medium composed of two different rocks so that the capillary pressure field is discontinuous at the interface between the rocks. This leads us to apply a concept of multivalued phase pressures and a notion of weak solution for the flow which have been introduced in Cancès and Pierre (SIAM J Math Anal 44(2):966–992, 2012). We discretize the problem by means of a numerical algorithm which reduces to a standard finite volume scheme in each rock and prove the convergence of the approximate solution to a weak solution of the two-phase flow problem. The numerical experiments show in particular that this scheme permits to reproduce the oil-trapping phenomenon.     

Immiscible two-phase Darcy flow model accounting for vanishing and discontinuous capillary pressures: application to the flow in fractured porous media

Fully implicit time-space discretizations applied to the two-phase Darcy flow problem leads to the systems of nonlinear equations, which are traditionally solved by some variant of Newton’s method. The efficiency of the resulting algorithms heavily depends on the choice of the primary unknowns since Newton’s method is not invariant with respect to a nonlinear change of variable. In this regard, the role of capillary pressure/saturation relation is paramount because the choice of primary unknowns is restricted by its shape. We propose an elegant mathematical framework for two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media resulting in a family of formulations, which apply to general monotone capillary pressure/saturation relations and handle the saturation jumps at rocktype interfaces. The presented approach is applied to the hybrid dimensional model of two-phase water-gas Darcy flow in fractured porous media for which the fractures are modelled as interfaces of co-dimension one. The problem is discretized using an extension of vertex approximate gradient scheme. As for the phase pressure formulation, the discrete model requires only two unknowns by degree of freedom.     

Hybrid discretization of multi-phase flow in porous media in the presence of viscous,gravitational, and capillary forces

Multi-phase flow in porous media in the presence of viscous, gravitational, and capillary forces is described by advection diffusion equations with nonlinear parameters of relative permeability and capillary pressures. The conventional numerical method employs a fully implicit finite volume formulation. The phase-potential-based upwind direction is commonly used in computing the transport terms between two adjacent cells. The numerical method, however, often experiences non-convergence in a nonlinear iterative solution due to the discontinuity of transmissibilities, especially in transition between co-current and counter-current flows. Recently, Lee et al. (Adv. Wat. Res. 82, 27–38, 2015) proposed a hybrid upwinding method for the two-phase transport equation that comprises viscous and gravitational fluxes. The viscous part is a co-current flow with a one-point upwinding based on the total velocity and the buoyancy part is modeled by a counter-current flow with zero total velocity. The hybrid scheme yields C¹-continuous discretization for the transport equation and improves numerical convergence in the Newton nonlinear solver. Lee and Efendiev (Adv. Wat. Res. 96, 209–224, 2016) extended the hybrid upwind method to three-phase flow in the presence of gravity. In this paper, we present the hybrid-upwind formula in a generalized form that describes two- and three-phase flows with viscous, gravity, and capillary forces. In the derivation of the hybrid scheme for capillarity, we note that there is a strong similarity in mathematical formulation between gravity and capillarity. We thus greatly utilize the previous derivation of the hybrid upwind scheme for gravitational force in deriving that for capillary force. Furthermore, we also discuss some mathematical issues related to heterogeneous capillary domains and propose a simple discretization model by adapting multi-valued capillary pressures at the end points of capillary pressure curves. We demonstrate this new model always admits a consistent solution that is within the discretization error. This new generalized hybrid scheme yields a discretization method that improves numerical stability in reservoir simulation.     

Numerical modeling of two-phase hysteresis combined with an interface condition for heterogeneous porous media

This paper presents a numerical implementation of two-phase capillary hysteresis and its combination with a capillary interface condition for the treatment of heterogeneities. The hysteresis concepts chosen in this work are first implemented in a node-centered FV discretization scheme and subsequently combined with the interface condition that predicts sharp saturation discontinuities at material interfaces, based on a pressure equilibrium concept. This approach allows for the approximation of history-dependent, and at the same time discontinuous, saturations at material interfaces. The resulting model provides a well-defined evolution of the hysteretic capillary pressure–saturation relationships at material interfaces that is independent of the grid spacing. As demonstrated with a simple 1-D example, this concept therefore offers the advantage that the solution of a two-phase flow problem involving hysteresis does not relate to the grid resolution at the material interfaces.     

Modelling Two-Phase Incompressible Flow in Porous Media Using Mixed Hybrid and Discontinuous Finite Elements

In this paper, we present a numerical model for simulating two-phase (oil–water and air–water) incompressible and immiscible flow in porous media. The mathematical model which is based on a fractional flow formulation is formed of two nonlinear partial differential equations: a mean pressure equation and a water saturation equation. These two equations can be solved in a sequential manner. Two numerical methods are used to discretize the equations of the two-phase flow model: mixed hybrid finite elements are used to treat the pressure equation, h-based Richards' equation and the diffusion term in the saturation equation, the advection term in the saturation equation is treated with the discontinuous finite elements. We propose a better way to calculate the nonlinear coefficients contained in our equations on each element of the discretized domain. In heterogeneous porous media, the saturation becomes discontinuous at the interface between two porous media. We show in this paper how to use the capillary pressure–saturation relationship in order to handle the saturation jump in the mixed hybrid finite element method. The two-phase flow simulator is verified against analytical solutions for some flow problems treated by other authors.     

A discontinuous Galerkin method for two-phase flow in a porous medium enforcing H(div) velocityand continuous capillary pressure

We consider the slightly compressible two-phase flow problem in a porous medium with capillary pressure. The problem is solved using the implicit pressure, explicit saturation (IMPES) method, and the convergence is accelerated with iterative coupling of the equations. We use discontinuous Galerkin to discretize both the pressure and saturation equations. We apply two improvements, which are projecting the flux to the mass conservative H(div)-space and penalizing the jump in capillary pressure in the saturation equation. We also discuss the need and use of slope limiters and the choice of primary variables in discretization. The methods are verified with two- and three-dimensional numerical examples. The results show that the modifications stabilize the method and improve the solution.     

A fully-coupled discontinuous Galerkin method for two-phase flow in porous media with discontinuous capillary pressure

In this paper, we formulate and test numerically a fully-coupled discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for incompressible two-phase flow with discontinuous capillary pressure. The spatial discretization uses the symmetric interior penalty DG formulation with weighted averages and is based on a wetting-phase potential/capillary potential formulation of the two-phase flow system. After discretizing in time with diagonally implicit Runge-Kutta schemes, the resulting systems of nonlinear algebraic equations are solved with Newton’s method and the arising systems of linear equations are solved efficiently and in parallel with an algebraic multigrid method. The new scheme is investigated for various test problems from the literature and is also compared to a cell-centered finite volume scheme in terms of accuracy and time to solution. We find that the method is accurate, robust, and efficient. In particular, no postprocessing of the DG velocity field is necessary in contrast to results reported by several authors for decoupled schemes. Moreover, the solver scales well in parallel and three-dimensional problems with up to nearly 100 million degrees of freedom per time step have been computed on 1,000 processors.     

A phase-field method for the direct simulation of two-phase flows in pore-scale media using a non-equilibrium wetting boundary condition

Advances in pore-scale imaging (e.g., μ-CT scanning), increasing availability of computational resources, and recent developments in numerical algorithms have started rendering direct pore-scale numerical simulations of multi-phase flow on pore structures feasible. Quasi-static methods, where the viscous and the capillary limit are iterated sequentially, fall short in rigorously capturing crucial flow phenomena at the pore scale. Direct simulation techniques are needed that account for the full coupling between capillary and viscous flow phenomena. Consequently, there is a strong demand for robust and effective numerical methods that can deliver high-accuracy, high-resolution solutions of pore-scale flow in a computationally efficient manner. Direct simulations of pore-scale flow on imaged volumes can yield important insights about physical phenomena taking place during multi-phase, multi-component displacements. Such simulations can be utilized for optimizing various enhanced oil recovery (EOR) schemes and permit the computation of effective properties for Darcy-scale multi-phase flows.We implement a phase-field model for the direct pore-scale simulation of incompressible flow of two immiscible fluids. The model naturally lends itself to the transport of fluids with large density and viscosity ratios. In the phase-field approach, the fluid-phase interfaces are expressed in terms of thin transition regions, the so-called diffuse interfaces, for increased computational efficiency. The conservation law of mass for binary mixtures leads to the advective Cahn–Hilliard equation and the condition that the velocity field is divergence free. Momentum balance, on the other hand, leads to the Navier–Stokes equations for Newtonian fluids modified for two-phase flow and coupled to the advective Cahn–Hilliard equation. Unlike the volume of fluid (VoF) and level-set methods, which rely on regularization techniques to describe the phase interfaces, the phase-field method facilitates a thermodynamic treatment of the phase interfaces, rendering it more physically consistent for the direct simulations of two-phase pore-scale flow. A novel geometric wetting (wall) boundary condition is implemented as part of the phase-field method for the simulation of two-fluid flows with moving contact lines. The geometric boundary condition accurately replicates the prescribed equilibrium contact angle and is extended to account for dynamic (non-equilibrium) effects. The coupled advective Cahn–Hilliard and modified Navier–Stokes (phase-field) system is solved by using a robust and accurate semi-implicit finite volume method. An extension of the momentum balance equations is also implemented for Herschel–Bulkley (non-Newtonian) fluids. Non-equilibrium-induced two-phase flow problems and dynamic two-phase flows in simple two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) geometries are investigated to validate the model and its numerical implementation. Quantitative comparisons are made for cases with analytical solutions. Two-phase flow in an idealized 2-D pore-scale conduit is simulated to demonstrate the viability of the proposed direct numerical simulation approach.     

Simulation of fluid percolation in a rough-walled rock fracture

A comparison of experimental and numerical results is presented addressing two-phase immiscible displacement in rough fractures. Quasi-static, capillary displacement in a rough fracture is modeled using the modified invasion percolation approach proposed by Glass et al (1998), and the results are compared against experimental observations obtained from two-phase flow through a rock fracture using x-ray computed-tomography scanning. The model is based on an algorithm seeking the least resistant pathway for the advancement of the invading fluid using the Young-Laplace equation and accounting for local in-plane curvature of the advancing fluid front. The saturation distribution map generated by the model yields good agreement with the experimental phase distribution and presents more realistic phase structures than those obtained from the conventional invasion percolation approach. The improvement in the results obtained with the modified invasion percolation approach is attributed to the contribution of the in-plane curvature term, which captures the effect of regionalized apertures, rather than single-point apertures, on the shape of the invading front. Glass RJ, Nicholl MJ, Yarrington L (1998) A modified invasion percolation model for low-capillary number immiscible displacements in horizontal rough-walled fractures: influence of local in-plane curvature. Water Resour Res 34:3215–3234     

Sequential implicit vertex approximate gradient discretization of incompressible two-phase Darcy flows with discontinuous capillary pressure

This work deals with sequential implicit schemes for incompressible and immiscible two-phase Darcy flows which are commonly used and well understood in the case of spatially homogeneous capillary pressure functions. To our knowledge, the stability of this type of splitting schemes solving sequentially a pressure equation followed by the saturation equation has not been investigated so far in the case of discontinuous capillary pressure curves at different rock type interfaces. It will be shown here to raise severe stability issues for which stabilization strategies are investigated in this work. To fix ideas, the spatial discretization is based on the Vertex Approximate Gradient (VAG) scheme accounting for unstructured polyhedral meshes combined with an Hybrid Upwinding (HU) of the transport term and an upwind positive approximation of the capillary and gravity fluxes. The sequential implicit schemes are built from the total velocity formulation of the two-phase flow model and only differ in the way the conservative VAG total velocity fluxes are approximated. The stability, accuracy and computational cost of the sequential implicit schemes studied in this work are tested on oil migration test cases in 1D, 2D and 3D basins with a large range of capillary pressure parameters for the drain and barrier rock types. It will be shown that usual splitting strategies fail to capture the right solutions for highly contrasted rock types and that it can be fixed by maintaining locally the pressure saturation coupling at different rock type interfaces in the definition of the conservative total velocity fluxes. The numerical investigation of the sequential schemes is also extended to the widely used finite volume Two-Point Flux Approximation spatial discretization.

     

Irreducible water distribution in sandstone rock: Two phase flow simulations in CT-based pore network

A simple cutoff approach based on the capillary bundle model has become an industrial standard method to quickly obtain the irreducible water saturation from NMR T₂ distribution. However this approach is not always valid. To overcome the shortcoming of the capillary bundle model that ignores pore-pore connectivity, we have conducted a two-phase flow simulation in a CT-based pore network. The CT -based pore network is a representation of a real rock pore structure that is described by a binary X-ray tomographic data set. Simulation on such network mimics a process of the porous plate measurement. The generated capillary curve is quite reasonable. The oil accession distributions at different water saturations plotted as a function of pore size provide an insight for the immiscible displacement process in the real rock pore structure. Water is trapped not only in dead ends but also in the well-connected pores due to a pore level by-pass mechanism. At the capillary end point pressure, a plot of the trapped water distribution as a function of pore size has the same lognormal distribution as the pore size distribution, which is much different from what the simple capillary bundle model suggests.     

利用时间分裂的错格伪谱法模拟地震波在基于改进BISQ模型的双相介质中的传播

改进的BISQ(Biot-Squirt)模型中各参数具有明确的物理意义和可实现性,在不引入特征喷流长度的情况下可将Biot流动和喷射流动两种力学机制有机地结合起来;而高精度的地震波场数值模拟技术是研究双相介质地震波传播规律的重要手段。本文从本构方程、动力学方程和动力学达西定律出发,推导了基于改进BISQ模型的双相各向同性介质的一阶速度--应力方程组;采用时间分裂错格伪谱法求该方程组的数值解,模拟半空间及层状双相介质中的地震波场。数值模拟结果表明:①与传统方法相比,时间分裂错格伪谱法波场数值模拟的精度更高,压制网格频散效果更好;②在非黏滞相界情况下,慢纵波呈传播性,而在黏滞相界情况下,慢纵波呈扩散性,以静态模式出现在震源位置;③双相介质分界面处,各类波型复杂的反射透射规律可由数值模拟结果清晰展现。     

On an Averaged Model for the 2-fluid Immiscible Flow with Surface Tension in a Thin Cylindrical Tube

We consider the two-fluid incompressible immiscible flow, with surface tension, in a thin cylindrical tube. Using the method of asymptotic expansions with respect to the thickness of the domain, effective 1D equations are derived. Supposing that the fluids are strictly separated at t=0 and that only one phase is in contact with the rigid wall, we show that the derived equations equal a nonlinear degenerate fourth order parabolic equation for the saturation. If we set the surface tension to be zero, it reduces to the Buckley–Leverett equation recently derived by Mikeli and Paoli using the same technique. In the general case we obtain the generalized Darcy's equations with extra-diagonal terms and the relative permeabilities are calculated explicitly. The capillary pressure results only from te surface tension between two fluid phases.