Three-Dimensional Modeling of Multiphase Fluid Flow with Linear Temperature Gradients in Porous Media Using Lattice Boltzmann Method Rothman-Keller

Abstract

In oil and gas production, only about 5% to 20% of hydrocarbons can be released through production wells with natural reservoir pressure. In the oil and gas industry, there is a method called enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to remove hydrocarbons trapped in rock pores. EOR is not easy and expensive, so fluid flow modeling and simulation are required to reduce the cost. In fluid modeling, there is a continuous approach using the Navier-Stokes (NS) equation. Not only the continuous approach, but fluid modeling also can be done by using Molecular Dynamics (MD) approach. Between these two methods, there is a method that bridging the advantages between the two. This method uses a macroscopic and microscopic approach (mesoscale) called Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). With this approach, the results obtained are quite accurate without the use of high computing devices. The LBM used in this research is the Rothman-Keller (RK) / color gradient method. This method assumes that the interaction force between two fluids is directly proportional to the two-fluid density ratio and has two collision operators, BGKW operator, and perturbation operator. This method is then subjected to pressure on the boundary region introduced by Zou-He. Then the temperature is given linearly and be used to calculate body force due to the temperature gradient. This study shows that the model that has been made is successfully simulating the flow of multiphase fluid in rock pores. In the model viscosity as a function of the temperature found that the average velocity of the fluid flow decreases when the temperature increase. In the temperature gradient model, when the temperature gradient increases, the average velocity, and saturation of the wetting fluid increases.