Flow regimes and relative permeabilities during steady-state two-phase flow in porous media

Steady-state two-phase flow in porous media was studied experimentally, using a model pore network of the chamber-and-throat type, etched in glass. The size of the network was sufficient to make end effects negligible. The capillary number, Ca, the flow-rate ratio, r, and the viscosity ratio, k, were changed systematically in a range that is of practical interest, whereas the wettability (moderate), the coalescence factor (high), and the geometrical and topological parameters of the porous medium were kept constant. Optical observations and macroscopic measurements were used to determine the flow regimes, and to calculate the corresponding relative permeabilities and fractional flow values. Four main flow regimes were observed and videorecorded, namely large-ganglion dynamics (LGD), small-ganglion dynamics (SGD), drop-traffic flow (DTF) and connected pathway flow (CPF). A map of the flow regimes is given in figure 3. The experimental demonstration that LGD, SGD and DTF prevail under flow conditions of practical interest, for which the widely held dogma presumes connected pathway flow, necessitates the drastic modification of that assumption. This is bound to have profound implications for the mathematical analysis and computer simulation of the process. The relative permeabilities are shown to correlate strongly with the flow regimes, figure 11. The relative permeability to oil (non-wetting fluid), kro, is minimal in the domain of LGD, and increases strongly as the flow mechanism changes from LGD to SGD to DTF to CPF. The relative permeability to water (wetting fluid), krw, is minimal in the domain of SGD; it increases moderately as the flow mechanism changes from SGD to LGD, whereas it increases strongly as the mechanism changes from SGD to DTF to CPF. Qualitative mechanistic explanations for these experimental results are proposed. The conventional relative permeabilities and the fractional flow of water, fw, are found to be strong functions not only of the water saturation, Sw, but also of Ca and k (with the wettability, the coalescence factor, and all the other parameters kept constant). These results imply that a fundamental reconsideration of fractional flow theory is warranted.