Bulk Flow Regimes and Fractional Flow in 2D Porous Media by Numerical Simulations

摘要

We investigate a two-dimensional network simulator that model the dynamics oftwo-phase immiscible bulk flow where film flow can be neglected. We present amethod for simulating the detailed dynamical process where the two phases areallowed to break up into bubbles, and bubbles are allowed to merge together.The notions of drainage and imbibition are not adequate to describe thisprocess since there is no clear front between the fluids. In fact, thesimulator is constructed so that one can study the behaviour of the system farfrom inlets and outlets, where the two fluids have been mixed together so muchthat all initial fronts have broken up. The simulator gives the fractional flowas a function of the saturation of each of the fluids. For the case of twofluids with equal viscosity, we classify flow regimes that are parametrized bythe capillary number.