scholarly journals Sequential implicit vertex approximate gradient discretization of incompressible two-phase Darcy flows with discontinuous capillary pressure

Author(s):  
K. Brenner ◽  
N. Chorfi ◽  
R. Masson
Author(s):  
Jennifer Niessner ◽  
S. Majid Hassanizadeh ◽  
Dustin Crandall

We present a new numerical model for macro-scale two-phase flow in porous media which is based on a physically consistent theory of multi-phase flow. The standard approach for modeling the flow of two fluid phases in a porous medium consists of a continuity equation for each phase, an extended form of Darcy’s law as well as constitutive relationships for relative permeability and capillary pressure. This approach is known to have a number of important shortcomings and, in particular, it does not account for the presence and role of fluid–fluid interfaces. An alternative is to use an extended model which is founded on thermodynamic principles and is physically consistent. In addition to the standard equations, the model uses a balance equation for specific interfacial area. The constitutive relationship for capillary pressure involves not only saturation, but also specific interfacial area. We show how parameters can be obtained for the alternative model using experimental data from a new kind of flow cell and present results of a numerical modeling study.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Pearson ◽  
Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi

Heat pipes are well known as simple and effective heat transport devices, utilizing two-phase flow and the capillary phenomenon to remove heat. However, the generation of capillary pressure requires a wicking structure and the overall heat transport capacity of the heat pipe is generally limited by the amount of capillary pressure generation that the wicking structure can achieve. Therefore, to increase the heat transport capacity, the capillary phenomenon must be either augmented or replaced by some other pumping technique. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) conduction pumping can be readily used to pump a thin film of a dielectric liquid along a surface, using electrodes that are embedded into the surface. In this study, two two-phase heat transport devices are created. The first device transports the heat in a linear direction. The second device transports the heat in a radial direction from a central heat source. The radial pumping configuration provides several advantages. Most notably, the heat source is wetted with fresh liquid from all directions, thereby reducing the amount of distance that must be travelled by the working fluid. The power required to operate the EHD conduction pumps is a trivial amount relative to the heat that is transported.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Manzoni ◽  
Aronne Dell'Oca ◽  
Martina Siena ◽  
Alberto Guadagnini

<p>We consider transient three-dimensional (3D) two-phase (oil and water) flows, taking place at the core-scale. In this context, we aim at exploiting the full information content associated with available information of (i) the 3D distribution of oil saturation and (ii) the overall pressure difference across the rock sample, to estimate the set of model parameters. We consider a continuum-scale description of the system behavior upon relying on the widely employed Brooks-Corey model for the characterization of relative permeabilities and on the capillary pressure correlation introduced by Skjaeveland et al. (2000). To provide a transparent way of assessing the results of the inversion, we rely on a synthetic reference scenario. The latter is intended to mimic having at our disposal 3D and section-averaged distributions of (time-dependent) oil saturations of the kind that can be acquired during typical laboratory experiments. These are in turn corrupted by way of a random noise, to address the influence of experimental uncertainties. We focus on diverse scenarios encompassing imbibition and drainage conditions. We employ two population-based optimization algorithms, i.e., (i) the particle swarm optimization (PSO); and (ii) the differential evolution (DE), which enable one to effectively tackle the high-dimensionality parameters space (i.e., 12 dimensions in our setting) we consider. Model calibration results are of satisfactory quality for the majority of the tested scenarios, whereas the DE algorithm is associated with highest effectiveness.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>S.M. Skjaeveland; L.M. Siqveland; A. Kjosavik; W.L. Hammervold Thomas; G.A. Virnovsky (2000). Capillary Pressure Correlation for Mixed-Wet Reservoirs SPE Res Eval & Eng 3 (01): 60–67. https://doi.org/10.2118/60900-PA</p>


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