Comparison of various formulations of three-phase flow in porous media
- Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States)
- Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
Various formulations of the governing equations that describe three-phase (e.g., water, oil, and gas) flow in porous media, including phase, global, and pseudo-global pressure-saturation formulations, are discussed in this paper. Comparisons of these differential formulations are theoretically and numerically presented for the first time. It is shown that the global pressure-saturation formulation is the most efficient one from the computational point of view in the case where the three-phase relative permeability and capillary pressure curves satisfy a so-called total differential condition, the pseudo-global formulation is useful when the fractional flow functions of the water and gas phases are close to their respective mean values, and the phase formulation can be applied generally. 23 refs., 4 figs., 10 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 535419
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 132, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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