A NEW SIMULATION MODEL FOR TWO-PHASE FLOW IN POROUS MEDIA

Abstract

Oil production from petroleum reservoirs is a result of its displacement from the reservoir pore space by either gas and/or water. The displacement process is simulated using Darcy's law as the basis of an axiomatic transport rule. However, Darcy's law is a phenomenologically derived constitutive equation that describes flow in porous media from a macroscopic standpoint. It fails to account for microscopic fluid interactions and pore-level variations that play significant roles even in the macroscopic manifestation of multiphase flow. This study presents a novel mathematical model to describe pore-level displacement processes in porous media. The flow medium considered in this work is a representative " physical model " made of parallel uniform circular capillary tubes, assembled to form a porous structure, which allows cross-flow from one tube to the other.