Imperial College London

ProfessorMartinBlunt

Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Earth Science & Engineering

Chair in Flow in Porous Media
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6500m.blunt Website

 
 
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Location

 

2.38ARoyal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Giudici:2023:10.1103/PhysRevE.107.035107,
author = {Giudici, LM and Raeini, AQ and Akai, T and Blunt, MJ and Bijeljic, B},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevE.107.035107},
journal = {Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics},
title = {Pore-scale modeling of two-phase flow: a comparison of the generalized network model to direct numerical simulation},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.107.035107},
volume = {107},
year = {2023}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - Despite recent advances in pore-scale modeling of two-phase flow through porous media, the relative strengths and limitations of various modeling approaches have been largely unexplored. In this work, two-phase flow simulations from the generalized network model (GNM) [Phys. Rev. E 96, 013312 (2017)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.96.013312; Phys. Rev. E 97, 023308 (2018)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.97.023308] are compared with a recently developed lattice-Boltzmann model (LBM) [Adv. Water Resour. 116, 56 (2018)0309-170810.1016/j.advwatres.2018.03.014; J. Colloid Interface Sci. 576, 486 (2020)0021-979710.1016/j.jcis.2020.03.074] for drainage and waterflooding in two samples-a synthetic beadpack and a micro-CT imaged Bentheimer sandstone-under water-wet, mixed-wet, and oil-wet conditions. Macroscopic capillary pressure analysis reveals good agreement between the two models, and with experiments, at intermediate saturations but shows large discrepancy at the end-points. At a resolution of 10 grid blocks per average throat, the LBM is unable to capture the effect of layer flow which manifests as abnormally large initial water and residual oil saturations. Critically, pore-by-pore analysis shows that the absence of layer flow limits displacement to invasion-percolation in mixed-wet systems. The GNM is able to capture the effect of layers, and exhibits predictions closer to experimental observations in water and mixed-wet Bentheimer sandstones. Overall, a workflow for the comparison of pore-network models with direct numerical simulation of multiphase flow is presented. The GNM is shown to be an attractive option for cost and time-effective predictions of two-phase flow, and the importance of small-scale flow features in the accurate representation of pore-scale physics is highlighted.
AU - Giudici,LM
AU - Raeini,AQ
AU - Akai,T
AU - Blunt,MJ
AU - Bijeljic,B
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.107.035107
PY - 2023///
SN - 1539-3755
TI - Pore-scale modeling of two-phase flow: a comparison of the generalized network model to direct numerical simulation
T2 - Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.107.035107
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37073001
UR - https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.107.035107
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/105765
VL - 107
ER -