Comprehensive comparison of pore-scale models for multiphase flow in porous media

Journal Article · Fri Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1901619116· OSTI ID:1566173

Zhao, Benzhong ^[1]; MacMinn, Christopher W.  ^[2]; Primkulov, Bauyrzhan K. ^[3]; Chen, Yu ^[4]; Valocchi, Albert J. ^[4]; Zhao, Jianlin ^[5]; Kang, Qinjun ^[6]; Bruning, Kelsey ^[7]; McClure, James E. ^[8]; Miller, Cass T. ^[7]; Fakhari, Abbas ^[9]; Bolster, Diogo ^[9]; Hiller, Thomas ^[10]; Brinkmann, Martin ^[11]; Cueto-Felgueroso, Luis ^[12]; Cogswell, Daniel A. ^[13]; Verma, Rahul ^[14]; Prodanović, Maša ^[14]; Maes, Julien ^[15]; Geiger, Sebastian ^[15] ; Vassvik, Morten ^[16]; Hansen, Alex ^[16]; Segre, Enrico  ^[17]; Holtzman, Ran ^[18]; Yang, Zhibing ^[19]; Yuan, Chao ^[20]; Chareyre, Bruno ^[20]; Juanes, Ruben  ^[3]

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1. Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L7, Canada,
2. Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, United Kingdom,
3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139,
4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801,
5. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland,
6. Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545,
7. Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27516,
8. Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute &, State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061,
9. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556,
10. Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, 30655 Hannover, Germany,
11. Department of Experimental Physics, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany,
12. Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain,
13. Aramco Research Center-Boston, Aramco Services Company, Cambridge, MA 02139,
14. Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712,
15. Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom,
16. Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway,
17. Department of Physics Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel,
18. Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 7610001, Israel,, Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 2JH, United Kingdom,
19. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China,
20. Laboratoire 3SR, Université Grenoble Alpes, 38041 Grenoble, France

Multiphase flows in porous media are important in many natural and industrial processes. Pore-scale models for multiphase flows have seen rapid development in recent years and are becoming increasingly useful as predictive tools in both academic and industrial applications. However, quantitative comparisons between different pore-scale models, and between these models and experimental data, are lacking. Here, we perform an objective comparison of a variety of state-of-the-art pore-scale models, including lattice Boltzmann, stochastic rotation dynamics, volume-of-fluid, level-set, phase-field, and pore-network models. As the basis for this comparison, we use a dataset from recent microfluidic experiments with precisely controlled pore geometry and wettability conditions, which offers an unprecedented benchmarking opportunity. We compare the results of the 14 participating teams both qualitatively and quantitatively using several standard metrics, such as fractal dimension, finger width, and displacement efficiency. We find that no single method excels across all conditions and that thin films and corner flow present substantial modeling and computational challenges.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Geologic Storage of CO2 (GSCO2); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0C12504; LDRD; AC05-00OR22725; SC0018357; 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 1566173
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1530799
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-19-21742
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 116 Journal Issue: 28; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE