A Numerical Method for Simulating Non-Newtonian Fluid Flow andDisplacement in Porous Media
- Ed.
Flow and displacement of non-Newtonian fluids in porousmedia occurs in many subsurface systems, related to underground naturalresource recovery and storage projects, as well as environmentalremediation schemes. A thorough understanding of non-Newtonian fluid flowthrough porous media is of fundamental importance in these engineeringapplications. Considerable progress has been made in our understanding ofsingle-phase porous flow behavior of non-Newtonian fluids through manyquantitative and experimental studies over the past few decades. However,very little research can be found in the literature regarding multi-phasenon-Newtonian fluid flow or numerical modeling approaches for suchanalyses.For non-Newtonian fluid flow through porous media, the governingequations become nonlinear, even under single-phase flow conditions,because effective viscosity for the non-Newtonian fluid is a highlynonlinear function of the shear rate, or the pore velocity. The solutionfor such problems can in general only be obtained by numerical methods.Wehave developed a three-dimensional, fully implicit, integral finitedifference simulator for single- and multi-phase flow of non-Newtonianfluids in porous/fractured media. The methodology, architecture andnumerical scheme of the model are based on a general multi-phase,multi-component fluid and heat flow simulator--TOUGH2. Severalrheological models for power-law and Bingham non-Newtonian fluids havebeen incorporated into the model. In addition, the model predictions onsingle- and multi-phase flow of the power-law and Bingham fluids havebeen verified against the analytical solutions available for theseproblems, and in all the cases the numerical simulations are in goodagreement with the analytical solutions. In this presentation, we willdiscuss the numerical scheme used in the treatment of non-Newtonianproperties, and several benchmark problems for model verification.In aneffort to demonstrate the three-dimensional modeling capability of themodel, a three-dimensional, two-phase flow example is also presented toexamine the model results using laboratory and simulation resultsexisting for the three-dimensional problem with Newtonian fluidflow.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director, Office of Energy Research
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 902130
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-39359; TRN: US200717%%39
- Journal Information:
- Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 21, Issue 5; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 04/15/1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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