Influence of wettability on constitutive relations and its role in upscaling

Conference · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998

OSTI ID:663379

Soll, W E ^[1]; Gray, W G ^[2]; Tompson, A F.B. ^[3]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences
2. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences
3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States). Earth Sciences Div.

The lattice Boltzmann (LB) method is applied to simulating multifluid flow in porous media at sub-pore resolution to determine constitutive behaviors. The authors address the importance of the LB technique for identifying process based constitutive relationships, and demonstrate its application through analysis of the influence of wettability on interfacial areas and constitutive relationships. Porous media surface wettability is varied from uniformly strongly wetted by the resident fluid through strongly wetted by the displacing fluid. Spatially variable wettability is also demonstrated. Primary imbibition and drainage displacements are run, and interfacial areas (IFA) as a function of time are determined and compared. Results indicate that wettability is an important factor in displacement behavior and resulting interfacial area. Primary imbibition in a strongly wet material under capillary dominated flows produces film flow, resulting in high IFAs that decrease with increasing saturation and viscous forces. Primary drainage produces initially high IFA that decreases slightly with increasing saturation or pressure drop. Surfaces with spatially variable wetting can have a strong influence on resulting fluid distributions and fluid flow.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., Earth and Environmental Sciences, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 663379
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--98-570; CONF-980670--; ON: DE98003463
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
58 GEOSCIENCES
CAPILLARY FLOW
FILM FLOW
FLUID FLOW
POROUS MATERIALS
RESERVOIR ROCK
SOILS
WETTABILITY