Characterizing Enhanced Oil Recovery from Lattice Boltzmann Simulations on Artificially Generated Porous Media Samples
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An understanding of fluid flow and transport in porous media is crucial in the development of better oil and gas recovery processes. With the emergence of parallel computing, today this is achieved more efficiently through direct numerical simulations of microscopic flow and transport. In order for this to be done, porous media models have to be created and multi-phase flow must be simulated. The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is a flexible computational tool that allows one to simulate fluid flow in complex heterogeneous media. It treats flow as the collective dynamics of pseudo particles and obtains a macroscopic equivalent to the Navier Stokes equations by approximating collision and propagation. For this research, the Rothman and Keller Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was used to simulate two-phase fluid flow in two-dimensional porous media structures. This color gradient method can simulate different wettability and large viscosity ratios with ease and accuracy using a vectorized 2-Dimensional LBM code. Nine different artificial two-dimensional porous media across three porosity values (60%, 65%, and 70%) were created. This was done to understand the influence of pore structure and arrangement on fluid flow for porous medias with the same porosity value. A total of 81 simulations were conducted in which a “red” fluid was injected in a porous medium that was initially saturated with a “blue” fluid of a different viscosity. Different wetting angles and viscosity ratios were used for the simulation to understand their influence on the flow morphology. The result showed that the viscous fingers for the wetting fluid (𝜃 = 0◦) were somewhat broader and more rounded relative to the fingers of the non-wetting fluid (𝜃 = 180◦). It also showed that the recovery factor benefits from higher porosity values. Observing the flow patterns from the simulations showed that the flow morphology of porous medias with the same porosity are similar irrespective of the pore arrangement and structure. The results from this experiment show that with increased viscosity ratio, the recovery ratio is higher, which means more production.Keywords:
Lattice Boltzmann methods
Multiphase flow
Viscous fingering
Multiphase fluid phenomena and flows occur when two or more fluids that do not readily mix (such as air and water) share an interface. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become very important in fluid flow studies. The Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has developed very quickly in the last two decades and has become a novel and powerful CFD tool, particularly for multiphase flows. In the LBM, the more fundamental Boltzmann equation is directly discretized. Compared to common CFD methods, the LBM has many advantages. It is based on the molecular kinetic theory, and for single-phase flow simulations it usually involves an ideal-gas equation of state. This chapter provides an introduction to several popular multiphase LBM models that include: the Color-gradient model, Shan–Chen model, Free-energy model, and the Interface tracking model. All the above Lattice Boltzmann multiphase models are under active development.
Lattice Boltzmann methods
Multiphase flow
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New computational techniques were developed for the analysis of fluid-structure interaction. The fluid flow was solved using the newly developed lattice Boltzmann methods, which could solve irregular shape of fluid domains for fluid-structure interaction. To this end, the weighted residual based lattice Boltzmann methods were developed. In particular, both finite element based and element-free based lattice Boltzmann techniques were developed for the fluid domain. Structures were analyzed using either beam or shell elements depending on the nature of the structures. Then, coupled transient fluid flow and structural dynamics were solved one after another for each time step. Numerical examples for both 2D and 3D fluid-structure interaction problems, as well as fluid flow only problems, were presented to demonstrate the developed techniques.
Lattice Boltzmann methods
Fluid–structure interaction
Lattice (music)
Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook operator
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Abstract This paper reviews recent developments of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for the simulation of isothermal flows containing fluid–fluid interfaces. Two formulations of the fluid–fluid LBM and some recent variants of these formulations are discussed. Simulation results are assessed through comparisons with experimental data or theoretical analyses. The goal of this review is to facilitate the judicious application of the LBM to practical flows. Copyright © 2008 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Isothermal process
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When a more mobile fluid displaces another immiscible one in a porous medium, viscous fingering propagates with a partial sweep, which hinders oil recovery and soil remedy. We experimentally investigate the feasibility of tuning such fingering propagation in a nonuniform narrow passage with a radial injection, which is widely used in various applications. We show that a radially converging cell can suppress the common viscous fingering observed in a uniform passage, and a full sweep of the displaced fluid is then achieved. The injection flow rate $Q$ can be further exploited to manipulate the viscous fingering instability. For a fixed gap gradient $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, our experimental results show a full sweep at a small $Q$ but partial displacement with fingering at a sufficient $Q$. Finally, by varying $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, we identify and characterize the variation of the critical threshold between stable and unstable displacements. Our experimental results reveal good agreement with theoretical predictions by a linear stability analysis.
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Viscous liquid
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to the study the multiphase bubbles flow motion in a vertical channel with an electroconducting liquid without and under the influence of a magnetic field. Design/methodology/approach For numerical calculations, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used, which is based on the kinetic theory for solving fluid mechanics and other physical problems. The phase-field lattice Boltzmann model is developed to simulate the behaviour of multiphase bubble–bubble interaction while rising in the fluid with high density ratios. Findings The behaviour of the rising bubble flow in a rectangular column of two phases is investigated with the two-dimensional LBM. Originality/value The multiphase flow in electroconducting liquids with high ratio of density is studied using the LBM.
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Multiphase flow
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This chapter discusses techniques for characterizing properties that are needed to predict multiphase fluid flow involving nonaqueous phase liquids, which is a difficult process. It also discusses fluid content measurement techniques for multiphase fluid systems. Capillary pressure–saturation relations, defined at a physical point, are important for the prediction of multiphase fluid flow. The chapter presents a discussion concerning the measurement of relations between fluid contents and pressures in multiphase fluid systems. A brief discussion of the measurement of relative permeability relations is provided. The chapter describes modeling approaches that have been used to predict relations among fluid contents, pressures, and relative permeabilities, including effects of hysteresis. Finally, also presents a discussion of the latest developments in measuring the interfacial areas of immiscible fluids, as they are important for understanding of multiphase fluid flow and retention and the transfer of mass, heat, and momentum between the fluids.
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Relative permeability
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A mathematical model of oil displacement under the condition of low pressure gradient has been established and solved. Reservoir saturations are compared for the circumstances of fingering and non-fingering. The effects of displacing fluid viscosity and crude oil viscosity on viscous fingering are specially analyzed. The relationship between CO2 flooding mechanism and fingering is discussed. The result shows that the higher the viscosity of displacing fluid is,the smaller the fingering is; and the higher the oil viscosity is,the larger the fingering is. CO2 can effectively mitigate fingering under high pressure.
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Over the last two decades, lattice Boltzmann methods have become an increasingly popular tool to compute the flow in complex geometries such as porous media. In addition to single phase simulations allowing, for example, a precise quantification of the permeability of a porous sample, a number of extensions to the lattice Boltzmann method are available which allow to study multiphase and multicomponent flows on a pore scale level. In this article, we give an extensive overview on a number of these diffuse interface models and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, we shortly report on multiphase flows containing solid particles, as well as implementation details and optimization issues.
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Recently, phase separation and fluid flow problems have represented an important development in fluid dynamics, which has many important industrial applications. Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is the numerical method that explains the behaviour of fluid dynamics in mesoscopic scale single-component single-phase and multi-component multiphase flows. In this paper, we study the lattice Boltzmann models (LBMs) in two dimensions (2D) with nine directions (Q9), that is the D2Q9 model was used to study the phase separation and observe that the phenomenon of fluid flow in a cylinder has obstacle and square cavity. The simulation results show that fluid flows in the square cavity and in the cylinder, present phase separation of single-component multiphase fluid flow.
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Mesoscopic physics
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Component (thermodynamics)
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In this study, a numerical simulation of fluid flow in porous media has been carried out by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) which is a new mesoscopic approach from statistical dynamics of particles repeating collisions and propagations. The data of solid boundary in the flow field are based on the structure of Ni-Cr sintered alloy measured with micro-focus X-ray computer tomography system with 10μm-order resolution. In the numerical result, it is observed that the fluid moves through complicated micro-scale channels due to non-uniform porosity in the media. This indicates the applicability of LBM to microscopic analysis of fluid flow through geomaterials.
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Mesoscopic physics
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