Multiphase Flow

Multiphase ow in porous media
Michel Panlov
2010
2
Contents
1 Micro-mechanics of two-phase ow in porous media 9
1.1 Surface phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.1.1 Surface tention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.1.1.1 Basic concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.1.1.2 Molecular phenomena near an interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.1.1.3 Energy of surface molecules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1.1.4 Surface tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1.1.5 Tangential elasticity of an interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.1.2 Capillary pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.1.2.1 Laplaces capillary pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.1.2.2 Properties of the capillary pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.1.3 Wetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.1.3.1 Spreading, wetting and adhesion on a solid surface . . . . . . . . . 16
1.1.3.2 Partial wetting - meniscus - contact angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.1.3.3 Necessary condition of Young for partial wetting . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.1.3.4 Impossibility of meniscus existence - formation of a lm . . . . . . 18
1.1.3.5 Signicance of wetting for oil recovery. Surfactants . . . . . . . . . 19
1.1.4 Capillary phenomena in a pore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.1.4.1 Capillary pressure in a pore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.1.4.2 Capillary movement - spontaneous imbibition . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.1.4.3 Menisci in non-uniform pores. Principle of pore occupancy . . . . 22
1.1.4.4 Capillary trapping in a pore - Jamins eect . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.1.4.5 Mechanism of liquid fragmentation in porous medium . . . . . . . 24
1.2 Structure of phase clusters in pore networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3
4 CONTENTS
1.2.1 Creation of continuous phase clusters in porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.2.1.1 Phase connectivity and mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.2.1.2 Percolation model of cluster formation in pore networks . . . . . . 28
1.2.1.3 Probabilistic model of cluster formation on Bethe-trees . . . . . . 29
1.2.1.4 Percolation threshold - Immobile saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1.2.1.5 Explicit approximation for the probability of cluster formation . . 31
1.2.1.6 Fatt parameter for self-similar porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.2.1.7 Active cluster of mobile phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.2.1.8 Triple structure of phase cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.2.2 Saturation of the active cluster. Probabilistic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1.2.2.1 Classes of pore occupancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1.2.2.2 Free parameters of phase clusters - Process-dependence . . . . . . 37
1.2.2.3 Overall phase saturation through the medium microstructure . . . 38
1.2.2.4 Saturation of the active cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.2.2.5 Parameters
i
and for Rayleigh distribution of pore radii . . . . 40
1.2.2.6 Fitting with experimental data. Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
1.2.2.7 Saturation of the active cluster for displacement process . . . . . . 43
2 Transition to macroscale two-phase equations 45
2.0.2.7.1 Problems of transition to the macroscale in two-phase case 46
2.1 Geometrical method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.1.1 Averaging with factorization of hydrodynamics and geometry . . . . . . . . 48
2.1.1.1 Structure of the phase clusters and the limitations for the interface 48
2.1.1.2 The idea of the method - factorization of hydrodynamics and ge-
ometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.1.1.3 Averaging the phase velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.1.1.4 Relation between averaged phase velocity and phase saturation . . 51
2.1.1.5 Relative permeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.1.1.6 Calculation of the relative permeabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.1.2 Other equations of the macroscopic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.1.2.1 Eective capillary pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.1.2.2 Dependence of the capillary pressure on saturation . . . . . . . . . 55
2.1.2.3 Mass balance equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
CONTENTS 5
2.1.2.4 Equations of phase state and rheological EOS . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.1.2.5 Overall system of macroscopic equations for two-phase ow . . . . 58
3 Macroscale theory of immiscible two-phase ow 59
3.1 Fundamental equations of two-phase immiscible ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.1 Particularity of a two-phase system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.2 Fluid constitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.3 Mass balance of each phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1.4 Momentum balance with no interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1.5 General two-phase Darcys law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.6 Closure relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2 Canonical theory of horizontal two-phase displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.1 1D model of two-phase ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.1.1 Conservation equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.1.2 Canonical Buckley-Leverett model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.1.3 Fractional ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.2.1.4 Determination of the total velocity U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2.1.5 Displacement problem as a Riemann problem . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2.1.6 Principle of maximum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2.2 Formal continuous solution od the displacement problem . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.2.2.1 Continuous solution: physical method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.2.2.2 Continuous solution: method of characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2.2.3 Non-existence of continuous solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.2.3 Discontinuous solutions. Shocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.2.3.1 Introduction of shocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.2.3.2 Mass balance at a shock (Hugoniots conditions) . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.3.3 Second method of deducing Hugoniot condition . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.2.3.4 Third method of deducing Hugoniot condition . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.2.3.5 Stability condition at a shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.2.3.6 Graphical image of a shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.2.3.7 Piston-like shocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.2.4 Recovery factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.2.4.1 Relation between recovery factor and average saturation . . . . . . 77
6 CONTENTS
3.2.4.2 Average water saturation at the breakthrough instant . . . . . . . 79
3.2.4.3 Another method of derivation the relation for the average saturation 79
3.2.4.4 Graphical determination of breakthrough recovery . . . . . . . . . 80
3.2.4.5 Physical structure of solution. Structure of non-displaced oil . . . 80
3.2.4.6 Eciency of displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.3 Displacement with gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.3.1 Canonical model of two-phase ow with gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.3.1.1 1D ow equations with gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.3.1.2 Canonical model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.3.2 Additional condition at shocks. Continuity w.r.t. initial conditions . . . . 87
3.3.2.1 Insuciency of Hugoniot and stability conditions for non-monotonic
fractional ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3.3.2.2 Conditions of continuity w.r.t. the initial data . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.3.2.3 Non necessity of the counter-current shocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.3.3 Various regimes and solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.3.3.1 Descending ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.3.3.2 Ascending ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.4 Displacement by immiscible slugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.4.1 Problem of slug motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.4.1.1 Problem setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.4.1.2 Separation of back and forward processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.4.2 Solution of the problem. Scenarios of evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.4.2.1 Solution for the forward part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.4.2.2 Solution for the back part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.4.2.3 Matching two solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.4.2.4 Evolution in time - stage 1: Independent development of the for-
ward and back parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.4.2.5 Evolution in time - stage 2: the back shock crosses the initial
position of the forward shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.4.2.6 Evolution - stage 3: the back shock disappears . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.5 Segregation and macro-bubble rising in porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.5.1 Segregation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
CONTENTS 7
3.5.1.1 Canonical 1D model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.5.1.2 Classical segregation problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5.1.3 Solution of the segregation problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5.2 Gas macro-bubble rising in liquid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5.2.1 Process description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5.2.2 Scenarios of the bubble motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
8 CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Micro-mechanics of two-phase ow
in porous media
9
10 CHAPTER 1. MICRO-MECHANICS OF TWO-PHASE FLOW IN POROUS MEDIA
1.1 Surface phenomena
1.1.1 Surface tention
1.1.1.1 Basic concepts
Interface: is the surface of discontinuity of thermodynamic properties of uid.
Example 1: the interface between water and vapour represents the surface of discontinuity of
uid density.
Example 2: the interface between water and oil represents the surface of discontinuity of uid
composition (and density, in general case)
Phases: uids separated by an interface.
Components: chemical species within one phase (non separated by interfaces).
The presence of interfaces determines the principle dierence in the behaviour of multiphase
systems in comparison with single-phase solutions, as the interface gives rise to specic new phys-
ical eects. In porous media these eects are amplied by the fact that the labyrinth of porous
channels plays the role of a kind of phase disperser which transforms continuous phases into the
system of drops, or bubbles, or lms, or lamellae etc. Thus, a two-phase uid in porous medium
has a very developed system of interfaces, both between two uids and between each uid and
solid rocks. The intersection of these two kinds of interfaces generates additional eects which
inuence uid behavior. In the network of porous channels the system of surface eects in lo-
cal pores generates some long space correlations which determine the non-locality in the phase
movement.
1.1.1.2 Molecular phenomena near an interface
Consider gas separated from liquid (or liquid - liquid) by an interface as shown in Fig. 1.1.
A molecule far from the interface, both in gas and in liquid, is attracted (or repulsed) by the
same forces from all the sides, which is not satised for molecules of the surface layer. A molecule
1.1. SURFACE PHENOMENA 11
Figure 1.1: Interactions between molecules near the interface
in liquid just in the surface area is strongly attracted by the dense system of molecules situated
below it than by the rareed system of molecules in gas above it. The resulting attraction force is
directed down. Due to this the surface molecules in liquid subside, which reduces the distances
between molecules of the surface layer and makes it denser (Fig. 1.2):
Figure 1.2: Compaction of the surface layer
The surface layer obtains dierent properties than other molecules and resists stronger to any
mechanical attempt to deform it.
1.1.1.3 Energy of surface molecules
The force of interaction between two molecules varies depending on the distance between them
according to a known relation of Lennard-Johnson which is shown in Fig. 1.3
Figure 1.3: Force and energy of interaction between molecules
If the distance is very small the force is repulsive and growth when the distance decreases.
For a large distance, the force becomes attractive, so it changes the sign. For very large distance,
the interaction force tends to zero. The state when the force crosses zero is the equilibrium.
This distance corresponds to that which is established between molecules in liquid far from the
interface. The molecules in the surface layer have smaller distance, as shown in Fig. 1.3.
If we draw now the image of the interaction energy (which is always positive) at the same plot,
then the energy should increase when the force becomes very high, and vanishes when the distance
becomes too large. In the equilibrium state the energy has local minimum E
min
. Such a behavior
is shown in Fig. 1.3. According to this plot, the interaction energy of the surface molecules is
higher than the molecules in bulk. The exceeding energy E
surf
is called the free surface energy.
1.1.1.4 Surface tension
The energy is an extensive parameter, the higher the amount of the substance (number of molecules),
the higher the energy is. For an interface, its free energy is proportional to the surface area A.
Instead of it, it is better to use the intensive parameter which is independent of the surface di-
mension. Such a specic free energy is called the surface tension:

E
surf
A
,
_
J
m
2
_
=
_
N
m
_
(1.1)
(According to the dimension, this parameter may be also treated as a force per unite length.)
The typical values for are:
Water - oil at 20 C : = 0.020 N/m,
Water - air at 20 C : = 0.073 N/m,
Mercury - air at 20 C : = 0.436 N/m.
1.1.1.5 Tangential elasticity of an interface
The compaction of surface molecules leads to the reduction of the distances between them (Fig.
1.4).
Figure 1.4: Dense structure of the surface layer
So the forces of interaction in horizontal plane also increase, which means that the tangential
elasticity increases.
The elasticity forces are opposite to the external forces of stretching the surface. The typical
example is a soap lm shown in Fig. 1.5 (blue).
Figure 1.5: Elasticity of e soap lm
The carcase of the construction presented is formed by a wire frame which possesses a mobile
side. If we try to stretch the lm by displacing the mobile side, the lm will resist. By measuring
the critical resistance force, it is possible to calculate the surface tension.
1.1.2 Capillary pressure
1.1.2.1 Laplaces capillary pressure
Laplace showed that the behavior of a plane and a curved interface is dierent. A curved interface
causes new physical eect which implies that the pressure in two uids is dierent from both sides
of the interface. The pressure dierence was called the capillary pressure. This eect is caused
by the surface tension. It is easy to obtain the quantitative relation for the capillary pressure, by
considering the energy balance. Let two uids, A and B, be in equilibrium in a closed reservoir.
Fluid B is suspended in uid A. For a given mass of B, the minimal surface area corresponds to
a sphere, so uid B must have spherical shape in the equilibrium (Fig. 1.6-a).
a b
Figure 1.6: The drop of uid B in uid A
Let P
A
and P
B
be the pressures in uids, V
A
and V
B
be the uid volumes, A be the surface
area, R be the radius of curvature of the surface. Laplace has obtained the following relation for
the capillary pressure of a spherical interface:
P
c
P
B
P
A
=
2
R
(1.2)
Proof:
1. The total volume is invariable, so
V
A
+V
B
= const (*)
2. Let us try to perturb the system by expanding uid B, so that the drop radius increases by
dR, as shown in Fig. 1.6-b. This means that we perform three kinds of mechanical work:
- the work of expanding uid B: P
B
dV
B
,
- the work of compressing uid A: P
A
dV
A
,
- the work of creation of new surface: dA.
These works change the system energy E, but in the equilibrium any variation of the energy
will be removed by the system it-self, so: dE = P
A
dV
A
P
B
dV
B
+dA = 0.
3. Using (*) we obtain:
(P
A
P
B
) dV
B
+dA = 0, P
B
P
A
=
dA
dV
B
=
d
_
4R
2
_
d
_
4
3
R
3
_ =
8RdR
4R
2
dR
=
2
R
which is (1.2).
1.1.2.2 Properties of the capillary pressure
1. P
c
is so that the uid pressure is higher from the concave side of the interface: P
B
> P
A
(Fig.
1.7).
Figure 1.7: Pressure in B is higher
2. P
c
is higher for small drops.
These properties directly follow from (1.2).
For non-spherical interface, the capillary pressure is calculated as:
P
c
P
B
P
A
=
_
1
R
I
+
1
R
II
_
Where R
I
and R
II
are the main radii of surface curvature at given point.
1.1.3 Wetting
1.1.3.1 Spreading, wetting and adhesion on a solid surface
Consider the two-phase system in contact with the solid surface, as shown in Fig. 1.8.
Figure 1.8: Two uids in contact with solid
Let us call the uids water and oil. The interface between uid and solid also possesses free
energy and is characterized by its own surface tension,
sw
and
soil
respectively for water and
oil. Let
sw
<
so
i.e. the free energy water-solid is lower than that of oil-solid. As the energy
tends to the minimum, the solid prefers to be in contact with water. Then water will spread over
the solid surface.
This spreading is caused by the new force = adhesion force, which is determined by the
dierence in surface tensions
sw
so
, and this force is parallel to the solid surface.
The preference in adhesion is called wetting. The uid which is more adhesive is wetting uid.
The complete wetting corresponds to the limit state of the spreading process shown in Fig. 1.9
Figure 1.9: Complete wetting
The wetting uid forms an innite lm uniformly covering the solid surface. In the case of
complete wetting, in the equilibrium state only the wetting uid has the contact with solid.
1.1.3.2 Partial wetting - meniscus - contact angle
The lm is not a unique possibility for reach the equilibrium. In multiple cases another equilibrium
structure, which is called the meniscus, is possible (Fig. 1.10).
Figure 1.10: Partial wetting and contact angle
Two uids are separated by an immobile interface which crosses the solid surface at the angle
. Such an interface is called the meniscus. If such an equilibrium structure exists, it corresponds
to the partial wetting. In the case of partial wetting both uids are in direct contact with solid.
The angle between the uid-uid interface and the solid surface is called the contact angle ().
We will assume that is calculated always in water area.
The following terminology is used: If 0 <

2
, water is called more wetting. If =

2
, we
are in the case of the neutral wetting. The meaning of these terms will be revealed in the next
paragraph.
1.1.3.3 Necessary condition of Young for partial wetting
Let the system shown in Fig. 1.11 be in the equilibrium, i.e. it is immobile or moves without
acceleration. Let us perturb the contact angle from to
= +d.
Figure 1.11: Deformation of the contact angle
Respectively, point M will displace by dx to the left from point B, the surface water-solid will
decrease, the surface oil-solid will increase, while the interface water-oil will decrease. Therefore
the sum of works produced to reduce/augmente surfaces is equal to the variation of the system
energy dE. In equlibrium dE = 0:
0 = dE =
sw
dx +
so
dx AM, AM = dx cos
where we have taken into account that the dierence between CA and CB is of order dx
2
when
dx is small.
Then we obtain:
so
sw
= cos , or cos =

so
sw
(1.3)
which is known as Young equilibrium condition of the existence of stable meniscus.
Thus, if 0 <

2
, , then cos > 0, so
so
>
sw
, i.e. the specic energy of the oil-solid
surface is higher than that of water-solid. Due to this the surface prefers to be covered by water:
one says that water is the more wetting uid, or the surface is hydrophilic. In the similar way, oil
is more wetting and the surface is hydrophobic when

2
< .
1.1.3.4 Impossibility of meniscus existence - formation of a lm
From Youngs condition, it follows that the equilibrium meniscus cannot exist when:
so
sw
>
so
sw
<
(1.4)
because cos becomes larger than 1 in the rst case, and lower and lower than 1. In theses cases
the meniscus structure becomes unstable and spontaneously transforms into the lm, as shown in
Fig. 1.12, 1.13.
Physically this means the following. If
so
> +
sw
i.e. (cos > 1), then the energy of the
surface oil-solid is too high and the system tries to reduce it: the meniscus transforms into water
lm covering the overall surface (Fig. 1.12).
If
sw
> +
so
, i.e. (cos < 1), then the meniscus transforms into oil lm (Fig. 1.13):
Figure 1.12: Transformation of the non-equilibrium meniscus in water lm
Figure 1.13: Transformation of the non-equilibrium meniscus in oil lm
1.1.3.5 Signicance of wetting for oil recovery. Surfactants
The main technology of oil recovery is waterooding (water injection in reservoir). The reservoir
rocks can be water-wet and oil-wet. Usually (but not necessarily) the silicates are water-wet, while
the carbonates are oil-wet. The phenomenon of wetting inuences the mobility of phases. If oil is
more wetting, then oil is more adhesive to the pore walls, then it is dicult to separate oil from
the solid surface. Such a situation reduces oil mobility and is unfavourable for oil recovery. The
injected water will displace oil only in the central part of each pore, but is incapable to separate
oil from the solid surface. The displacement would by much pore complete if the rocks were
water-wet.
In order to make rocks water-wet, it is sucient to ensure that cos would be positive (for
calculated in water area) , i.e.
so
>
sw
(1.5)
If this dierence becomes too high, so that
so
>
sw
+ , we reach the perfect situation of
complete wetting by water. For ensure (1.5), it is sucient to reduce
sw
without changing
so
.
This can be reached by dissolving in water surfactants.
A surfactant is a chemical substance whose molecules prefer to be placed near the interfaces
and which reduces signicantly the surface tension even at small concentration. The molecule of a
typical surfactant consists of two parts: its head has hydrocarbon nature and is hydrophobic, while
the opposite part is polar (ionic) and is hydrophilic. The hydrophobic head prefers to be dissolved
in oil, while the hydrophilic tail prefer to remains in water, as the result such a molecule occupies
the place exactly at the oil-water interface. This is not however sucient to reach condition (1.4).
The expected result is reached in the following way.
The hydrophobic heads also penetrate under the oil drop, being followed with water lm. Due
to this the oil is separated from the solid. The surfactant entirely encapsulates oil.
1.1.4 Capillary phenomena in a pore
1.1.4.1 Capillary pressure in a pore
Let us consider an individual pore which contain the two-phase uid (water-oil) under conditions
of partial wetting. Let us assume that water is more wetting, Fig. 1.14.
Figure 1.14: Meniscus in a pore
For a narrow pore, the meniscus will be entirely curvilinear and close to a segment of sphere.
A curvilinear interface produces the Laplace capillary pressure which is dened by Eq. (1.2) when
R is the curvature radius. For pore system, it is more convenient to use pore radii r instead of
surface curvature radii. The relation for the capillary pressure expressed through the pore radius
will be:
P
c
=
2 cos
r
(1.6)
Proof:
Consider Fig. 1.15.
Figure 1.15:
The following is true: ACB = NCM = , because ACNC, BCMC. Then R =
r
cos
.
Then Eq. (1.2) gives (1.6).
1.1.4.2 Capillary movement - spontaneous imbibition
The capillary force applied to the meniscus causes the spontaneous ow in porous medium which
is called the spontaneous imbibition. The velocity of this ow and the capillary force which causes
this ow are determined by the relations:
V =
8r
2
P
c
L
> 0, (if
w
=
oil
);

F
c
= P
c
S
m
e
v
(1.7)
and are directed from the wetting uid to the non-wetting one.
Herein:
w
and
oil
are the dynamic viscosities of water and oil; r and L are the pore radius
and length; P
c
is the capillary pressure at the meniscus dened as (1.6); S
m
is the area of the
meniscus; e
v
is the unit vector directed along the ow velocity.
Proof:
1. Consider the simplied situation when
w
=
oil
and both phases are incompressible.
In general case the ow may be caused by and capillarity and the external pressure dierence
P = P
A
P
B
(Fig. 1.16).
Figure 1.16:
2. Flow from the left and the right of the meniscus being single-phase is described by Poiseuille
law for water and oil respectively:
P
A
P
m
x
m
=
8
w
r
2
V
w
,
(P
m
+P
c
) P
B
L x
m
=
8
oil
r
2
V
oil
when V is the ow velocity averaged over the cross-section.
3. The mass balance for incompressible uids in a uniform channel implies that: V
oil
= V
w
V .
4. Then P
A
P
m
=
8
w
r
2
V x
m
, P
m
+ P
c
P
B
=
8
oil
r
2
V (L x
m
). The sum of these two
relations yields: P
A
P
B
+P
c
=
8
r
2
V L (if
w
=
oil
).
If the external force is zero P = P
A
P
B
= 0, then we obtain (1.7).
This velocity is non-zero, thus the uid moves.
Conclusions:
1. Capillary pressure in a pore provokes spontaneous uid movement (spontaneous imbibition).
2. This ow is directed to the sense of the local increase of pressure (!), which is non-traditional
in uid mechanics.
3. Such a movement is caused by the capillary force

F
c
(see in (1.7)) which is a vector, contrarily
to the capillary pressure which is scalar.
4. Such a motion causes the spontaneous penetration of the more wetting uid into porous
medium.
1.1.4.3 Menisci in non-uniform pores. Principle of pore occupancy
Consider a meniscus in a diverging and converging pore, Fig. 1.17.
Figure 1.17:
Let us assume the positive direction of the ow is from the left to the right. In cases (a), (b),
(c), (f) in Fig. 1.17 the capillary force helps to wetting uid enter in the pores, while in the case (d)
the capillary force is opposite to the ow. Thus, the wetting uid has no problem to enter in any
types of convergences and small divergences, but cannot entre in large divergences. In contrast,
the non-wetting uid can spontaneously enter in very sharp convergences (d), but cannot enter in
any other type of pores.
This determines the fundamental principle of asymmetrical pore occupancy:
Principle 1:
_
_
the wetting phase cannot enter in too large pores, larger than r
max
cr
;
the non-wetting phase cannot enter in too small pores, smaller than r
min
cr
_
_
(1.8)
Two critical values r
max
cr
and r
min
cr
are determined not only by the Jamin eect (see the next
section), but also by the type of the hydrodynamic process. In particular, if water is injected in
the medium which was initially occupied entirely by oil, then r
max
cr
while r
min
cr
corresponds to the
situation e in Fig. 1.17. If oil is injected in water, then r
max
cr
while r
min
cr
corresponds to the
situation e.
In the classic theory the principle of pore occupancy is formulated in dierent way: the wetting
phase is assumed to occupy preferably small pores, and non-wetting phase occupies the largest
pore. This is not true, because in small pores the hydraulic resistance to ow is higher than in
large pores, so any uid prefers to ow through large pores, if it is possible.
1.1.4.4 Capillary trapping in a pore - Jamins eect
Let us consider now the non-uniform pore channel. The Jamin eect says that the passage of an
isolated liquid drop (or gas bubble) through a pore convergence is retarded by capillary eects. If
the convergence is very sharp, then the passage of the drop is impossible. The illustration to this
phenomenon is given in Fig. 1.18.
Figure 1.18: Passage of a non-wetting drop through pore convergence
Let an oil (non-wetting) isolated drop passes through a pore convergence, from the left to the
right. Due to the asymmetry, the capillary forces, which are proportional to the capillary pressure
and the meniscus area, applied to two menisci will be dierent from one another. The capillary
force

F
c2
applied to the right-hand meniscus will be higher. Due to this the resulting capillary
force is nonzero and is opposite to the ow direction. If the external pressure drop is insucient,
then the oil drop can not pass. We observe the eect of the capillary resistance to oil ow.
The sharper the pore convergence-divergence, the higher the dierence

F
c2
F
c1
, the higher the
capillary resistance, the lower the degree of oil drop mobility is. Whatever the external pressure
gradient, in a statistical ensemble of pores the oil drop will certainly meet a very sharp convergence-
divergence with very high capillary resistance force which will be higher than the external pressure
gradient. This gives rise to a second fundamental principle of phase immobilization:
Principle 2:
_
_
if a phase exists in the form of disconnected drops in porous medium,
then this phase remains immobile even at very high pressure gradients
_
_
(1.9)
In reality this phase may locally move at low distance until it reaches the sharp convergence-
divergence.
1.1.4.5 Mechanism of liquid fragmentation in porous medium
The conservation of the continuity of both phases is possible only in the specic case of the porous
medium represented by a bundle of parallel tubes which are not intersecting between them. The
intersection between pore channels makes impossible the conservation of the phase continuity. To
illustrate this mechanism, it is sucient to consider the simplest model of the pore intersection
which is the so called doublet-model. It represents the parallel connection between two channels
of dierent radii, Fig. 1.19-a.
Figure 1.19: Mechanism of oil fragmentation in porous medium
Consider the doublet occupied entirely by oil. Let water displace oil from the left boundary.
The ow velocity in large channel will be higher as the resistance to ow is lower in large channel.
Then water from large channel reaches rst the outlet node of pore intersection (b). After this
water passes to the outlet pore while creating the new meniscus which will separate water from
non-displaced oil in the narrow channel. This non-displaced oil will be isolated and immobilized,
according to the principle of drops immobilization.
1.2 Structure of phase clusters in pore networks
The classical micro-scale theory is based on the simplied hypothesis of pore occupancy: it assumes
that two classes of pores occupied by two phases are non-superposed, i.e. the wetting phase
occupies the smallest pores while the non-wetting phase occupies the largest pores. This implies
that at a given saturation the structure of phase repartition in pores is unique. Consecutively,
such a model has no free parameters responsible for phase structure, and due to this is process-
independent.
This hypothesis is wrong, indeed if we displace oil by water from a porous sample, at the
initial state all pores are accessible for oil. So whatever the class of pores accessible for water, the
two classes will be superposed with one another. Due to this the third class of pores appears in
which both phases may be present. This introduces a degree of freedom in the system behavior,
which is reected by two new free parameters which determines the two limits of the new class.
These parameters are dierent for dierent physical processes, due to which the model becomes
process-dependent (section 1.2.2.1).
The objective of this section is to discover the internal sub-structures of phase clusters and to
suggest a mathematical model which relates the volumes of each sub-structure with the micro-scale
parameters of porous medium.
1.2.1 Creation of continuous phase clusters in porous media
1.2.1.1 Phase connectivity and mobility
The principle of immobilization (1.9) establishes the relation between the phase mobility and
connectivity in porous space. Extending this principle, we can expect that the degree of the phase
connectivity is the criterion of the phase mobility. In this case, the primary coarse estimation of
the phase mobility may be obtained from a purely geometrical problem of evaluating the phase
connectivity.
For this purpose, it is necessary to start by introducing the criterion of phase connectivity.
This might be the volume fraction of connected pore of oil (or water). So the objective of this
1.2. STRUCTURE OF PHASE CLUSTERS IN PORE NETWORKS 27
part is to develop a mathematical model which would be capable to determine the volume fraction
the connected cluster of oil or water as the function of the parameters of the porous medium.
The volume fraction of this cluster, called the saturation, could give the rst estimation for the
hydraulic conductivity of the medium with respect to each phase.
The mathematical model which relates the phase connectivity criterion with the internal struc-
ture of porous medium may be developed in the following way.
We will analyze the oil cluster, but this analysis is symmetrical for both phases. Let us assume
that oil may be considered as the discrete system of elementary particles randomly distributed
in space. The domain is innite, in order to ensure the representative character of the statistical
ensemble of particles. If the number of particles increases then the probability of connection
between them increases too. The small clusters are not important for us, as they remain immobile
whatever their dimension, according to principle (1.9). The phase becomes mobile only when it
can create the innite connected cluster made of its own particles. Let be the fraction of oil
particles in the domain, and Y be the volume fraction of the innite cluster of oil, which also may
be interpreted as the probability of creation of the innite oil cluster. It is clear that Y should
depend on . The objective of this part is to nd the function Y ().
This problem has two nontrivial elements:
(i) the probability Y is not equal to , because if the fraction of oil pores is low, then they are
incapable to construct a connected path, i.e. Y = 0 when = 0;
(ii) even at high fractions Y is not equal to , as the part of pores occupied by oil can be
blocked by pores occupied by water.
Note that is equal to volume fraction of oil called the saturation S, if all the oil particles are
identical. Otherwise, the relation between and S is more complicated.
The creation of the innite cluster in the free space and in porous medium is not the same
problem. In porous medium the event of meeting between two particles is constrained by the own
connectivity of pore network. It is clear that the pores are disconnected between them, then oil
will never create the innite cluster even if = 1. So the probability Y () also should depend on
some parameters responsible for the connectivity of the pore network.
We arrive to the necessity to calculate the probability of the creation of the innite cluster in
a discrete network. It is a classical problem of the so-called percolation theory.
1.2.1.2 Percolation model of cluster formation in pore networks
The simplest problem of the percolation theory is formulated in the following way: let two elec-
trodes be applied to two opposite sides of a table. The electrical tension does not generate any
current as the wooden surface of the table is a dielectric. Let us start to cover the surface by
coins. At small concentrations of coins, the electrical current is low probable, but starting from
a critical value
an innite cluster will be created and the current will appear. This problem is
exactly the same as that of oil clustering. The critical value
is called the percolation threshold.

In terms of the two-phase ow, the percolation threshold corresponds to the minimal oil satu-
ration at which oil can be mobile. In other words, this parameter represents the interface between
the mobile and immobile oil.
The more general percolation problem consists of determining the overall function Y ().
Function Y () and the value
for porous media can be calculated analytically for some

idealized models of porous networks.
Let us consider the system of pores so that each of them represents a cylinder of radius r and
length L. These values may be random or constant. The pores are connected between them, so
that they create a pore network. A particular form of such a network is shown in Fig. 1.20.
Figure 1.20: Pore network and an elementary pore
The intersection of two or more pores is called the node. The main parameter which charac-
terizes the medium connectivity is the parameter of Fatt : it is the number of pores which are
crossed in a node. For an arbitrary network, this parameter is variable (and random) in space.
We assume that the network may have a random structure but the Fatt parameter is regular and
constant.
The minimal possible value of is 2, which corresponds to a bundle of parallel capillary tubes.
This model has however a serious defect - the pore channels are disconnected from one another.
The minimal value of which ensures the total connectivity of all pores is = 3 . This corresponds,
for instance, to regular hexagonal networks (Fig. 1.21).
Figure 1.21: Pore network with minimal connectivity ( = 3)
We assume that each pore is entirely occupied by oil or water. Then one pore may be considered
as an elementary particle of oil mentioned in the previous paragraph. Then the oil saturation S
is the fraction of pores occupied by oil S = .
The satisfactory qualitative results can be obtained by using the models of networks with
independent bifurcations between pore branches. In theoretical physics they are called Bethe-
trees. The example of a Bethe-tree is shown in Fig. 1.22.
Figure 1.22: Bethe-tree or the network with independent bifurcations
1.2.1.3 Probabilistic model of cluster formation on Bethe-trees
Let us introduce two events:
= {the creation of an innite oil cluster} ,
<== {an arbitrary pore is occupied by oil}
The rst event may be also interpreted as:
= {an arbitrary pore belongs to the innite oil cluster}
The probabilities of these two events are Y and .
The inverse events are:
= {an arbitrary pore does not belong to the innite cluster} ,

= {an arbitrary pore is occupied by water}
Their probabilities are 1 Y and 1 respectively.
The objective is to calculate the probability p() which is Y .
To nd p() , it is simpler to work with the inverse event
.
This event may be realized in two ways:
i) the arbitrary pore is occupied by water;
ii) the arbitrary pore is occupied by oil, but all the neighboring pores do not belong to the
innite cluster (event
repeated 1 times, because the number of neighboring pores for the

given pore is 1).
Herein symbols () and (+) mean
and
respectively.
This is formulated in terms of the following equation for events:
In terms of probabilities we obtain: 1 Y = (1 ) + (1 Y )
1
if we assume that all
events are independent. Its is satised for a Bethe-tree which has independent bifurcations.
Simplifying the last equation we obtain:
Y =
_
1 (1 Y )
1
_
(1.10)
which determines the function Y () in the implicit way. This function is shown in Fig. 1.23.
This picture shows that within the range of oil saturations below a critical value
the creation
of the innite oil cluster is impossible. The value
is called the percolation threshold. This value

determines the immobile oil.
Figure 1.23: Probability of the innite cluster for Bethe-trees
1.2.1.4 Percolation threshold - Immobile saturation
Relation (1.10) enables us to obtain the analytical result for the percolation threshold
for any
value of the Fatt parameter. Indeed, in the vicinity of
the probability Y () tends to zero. Then

we can expand (1.10) in Taylor series:
=
Y
1 (1 ( 1) Y +...)
=
Y
( 1) Y +...
=
1
1
(1.11)
In particular, for = 3,
= 0.5. The values obtained with the help of (1.11) are a little bit
larger than in reality, due to the assumption of independent bifurcations.
1.2.1.5 Explicit approximation for the probability of cluster formation
Relation (1.10) is the basis in building all the consecutive theory. It would be much simpler
if this relation would be explicit. Such an explicit approximation of good accuracy is a simple
one-parametrical parabola:
Y =
0
(1 )
2
+,
0

(1
)
2
(1.12)
This function has the same boundary points (
, 0) and (1, 1), and the same derivative at = 1.

This approximation is good for media with week branching, so that 3. This corresponds
to the real situation (in section 1.2.2.6 it will be shown that < 2.8 for real porous media. The
comparison with exact relation (1.10) is given in Fig. 1.24.
Figure 1.24: Probability of the innite cluster for Bethe-trees
Relationships (1.10) and (1.12) are useless until we have virtually no tools to measure the Fatt
parameter for real porous media.
1.2.1.6 Fatt parameter for self-similar porous media
The Fatt parameter may be expressed through the medium active porosity. The relation between
porosity and clearly exists; indeed, if the active porosity is low, then the connectivity can not
be high. Such a relation is obtained by applying the hypothesis of self-similarity which says that
the porous medium is self-similar at any scales.
Then the surface of a porous channel must be similar to any macroscale surface of the medium.
In Fig. 1.25 we present the macroscopic cross-section of the porous medium (on the left) and the
lateral surface of the porous channel.
Figure 1.25: Macroscopic cross-section of the medium and the lateral surface of a pore channel
The perforations on the lateral surface of the channel correspond to branches crossing this
channel.
For a self-similar medium, the dimensionless geometrical parameters are identical, then the
macroscopic porosity is equivalent to the porosity of the lateral surface of a channel. Let us
consider the channel of the length L which corresponds to one pore. The number of branches will
be 2, as seen in Fig. 1.26: the analyzed pore AB consists of two branches AO and BO, so
that the remaining number of neighboring pores crossing at the same node will be 2.
Figure 1.26: Illustration to the intersection between the considered pore channel AB and the
neighboring pores
Then the lateral porosity is the cross-area of all branches divided by the area of the lateral
surface:
=
r
2
( 2)
2rL
which gives us the denition of the Fatt parameter through medium porosity:
= 2 + 2,
L
r
(1.13)
Then the immobile oil saturation, or the percolation threshold, becomes:
=
1
1 + 2
(1.14)
In practice, for coarse estimations, it is possible to accept:
0.15 0.3 (1.15)

Substituting the obtained value of in (1.15), we obtain the denite relationship for the Fatt
parameter:
= 2 + 8 (1.16)
1.2.1.7 Active cluster of mobile phase
The innite cluster of oil consists of two parts: the pores which are connected to cluster only by
one end, and the pores connected by both ends. The rst ones are lled up by oil, but oil cannot
move there, being blocked. This is stagnant oil. The oil movement happens only in those pores
which are connected to the cluster by both ends. So the innite cluster contains inside it a smaller
cluster which contains only moving oil. The probability that an arbitrary pore belongs to the
mobile cluster is
mob
= Y
2
. This value may be called the saturation of mobile oil. The function
mob
() can be easily obtained from (1.10) in the implicit form:
=
mob
1
_
1
mob
_
1+2
(1.17)
or, from the explicit approximative relation (1.12):
mob
=
_
0
(1 )
2
+
_
2
,
0

(1
)
2
(1.18)
In particular case when = 0.125 the exact equation (1.17) has the explicit solution with
respect to
mob
():
mob
=
_
_
_
2
1
_
2
, > 0.5
0, 0 0.5
Function
mob
() is shown in Fig. 1.27.
Figure 1.27: Saturation of the moving oil as the function of the total oil saturation for two values
of medium porosity
1.2.1.8 Triple structure of phase cluster
The global structure of the oil cluster is presented in Fig. 1.28 in which only the pores occupied
by oil are shown. The left and right boundaries represent the inlet and the outlet of ow.
Figure 1.28: Structure of the cluster occupied by oil: innite cluster of mobile oil (blue), dead
tails (brown) and nite clusters disconnected from the innite cluster (red)
We distinguish three types of pores:
- The active innite cluster of mobile oil,
mob
(blue colour);
- The dead tails of the innite cluster,
tail
(brown);
- The nite aggregates,
disc
(red), which are disconnected from the innite cluster.
To describe these clusters we will use the fractions of oil pores:
mob
,
tail
, and
disc
which
are the number of pores in the corresponding domain
mob
,
tails
, or
disc
divided to the total
number of pores. Along with them we will use three oil saturations : S
mob
, S
tails
, and S
disc
,
which are the volumes of the corresponding domain
mob
,
tails
, or
disc
divided to the total
pore volume. The theoretical relations of section 1.2 are based on fractions , while the nal
hydrodynamic equations use saturations S.
Remarks:
1. The fraction of dead tiles constitutes
tail
= Y Y
2
and is signicant. For instance, for the
medium with porosity = 0.375 occupied by 55% of oil, the fraction of dead tails is equal to the
fraction of the active cluster and constitutes 25%.
2. The described structure of clusters is independent of the nature of the uid, then the cluster
of water will have the same structure at the same saturation. The symmetry between oil and
water clusters means that :
mob,oil
() =
mob,w
(1 ) (1.19)
3. The obtained relations for the saturation of the innite cluster and the saturation of the
active cluster depend on only one parameter of the microstructure of porous network - the Fatt
parameter of bifurcations . The pore dimensions do not play signicant role.
4. If all pores are identical, then the fractions are equivalent to the saturations S:
S = , S
mob
(S) =
mob
(), ... (1.20)
1.2.2 Saturation of the active cluster. Probabilistic model
1.2.2.1 Classes of pore occupancy
Let the two phases verify the principle of asymmetrical pore occupancy (1.9), and water be the
more wetting uid. The pores are cylinders of dierent radii r but identical length L. We can
consider the pore radii as the realizations of a random function. The distribution of pore radii is
F(r) and the density of distribution is f(r) =
dF
dr
, such that

0
f(r)dr = 1.
At a given oil saturation S
oil
water can occupy all the pores except those which are larger
than the critical radius r
max
, and oil cannot occupy too small pores whose radius is lower than the
second critical value r
min
. The critical radii r
min
and r
max
, which determine the critical sizes of
phase clusters, are two new free parameters of the model, they are determined in dierent way for
dierent physical processes which will be analyzed in the next paragraph. Then all the ensemble
of pores is separated on three classes, Fig. 1.29:
Figure 1.29: Repartition of phases between dierent pores
- Class I: the smallest pores with r r
min
: they are always occupied by water. This part
remains invariable (if r
min
= const), so the water saturation is always higher than 0.
- Class II: the intermediate pores r
min
< r r
max
; they are occupied by both the phases. Only
in this class the relative volume of oil and water can vary. It is necessary to introduce the fraction
of pores of this class occupied by water and oil:
II
w
and
II
oil
= 1
II
w
.
- Class III: the largest pores r > r
max
always occupied by oil. This part is also invariable (if
r
max
= const), so the oil saturation is always higher than 0 too.
Let N be the total number of pores, and N
i
(i = I, II, III) be the number of pores of the class
i. Let us introduce the fractions of pores of various classes:
I

N
I
N
=
r
min
0
dF,
II

N
II
N
=
r
max
r
min
dF,
III

N
III
N
=
r
max
dF
and the mean values of r
n
(for any n) averaged over each class:
r
n
I

r
min
0
r
n
dF
r
min
0
dF
, r
n
II

r
max
r
min
r
n
dF
r
max
r
min
dF
, r
n
III

r
max
r
n
dF
r
max
dF
, r
n

0
r
n
dF
The fractions of pore occupied by each phase,
w
and
oil
are the following:
w
=
I
+
II
w
II
,
oil
=
III
+
II
oil
II
, (1.21a)
II

w

II
+
II
,
III

oil

III
+
II
(1.21b)
Equations (1.21a) satisfy the necessary condition
oil
= 1
w
. Indeed, by summing these two
relations we obtain:
oil
+
w
=
I
+
_
II
w
+
II
oil
_
II
+
III
=
I
+
II
+
III
= 1
1.2.2.2 Free parameters of phase clusters - Process-dependence
Critical radii r
min
and r
max
, which determine the maximal admissible size of phase clusters, are
process-dependent. In particular, they are determined in dierent way for the processes of oil
displacement by water and that of water displacement by oil.
Let water be the more wetting uid.
Displacement of oil by water: As oil initially occupies all the pores then r
min
= 0. Parameter
r
max
depends on the local pressure gradient, and corresponds to the situation shown in Fig.
1.17 between (e) and (d) (in this case the ow is directed from the left to the right), when the
capillary counter-force becomes equivalent to the external pressure dierence P along the pore
length L. For the capillary counter-pressure we can use (1.6). The critical value r
max
results from
the equilibrium between the capillary counter-pressure and the external pressure dierence P.
Approximately this should be a kind of the Laplace equation:
P =

wo
cos
r
max
where
wo
is an empirical parameter. Then we obtain:
r
min
= 0, r
max
=

wo
cos
P
=

wo
cos
L
|grad P|
1
(1.22)
Displacement of water by oil. The situation is anti-symmetrical, so r
max
= , while parameter
r
min
corresponds to the same situation shown in Fig. 1.17 between (e) and (f) (in this case the
ow is directed from the left to the right). The equilibrium between the capillary counter-force
and the external pressure dierence P along the pore length L gives the similar relation, but
with another value of
ow
:
r
min
=

ow
cos
P
=

ow
cos
L
|grad P|
1
, r
max
=
Parameters
wo
and
ow
should be determined from more sophisticated pore-scale models
which considers the pores as cones characterized by random radius and random angle. We will
consider these parameters as empirical and will try to determine them from experimental data.
1.2.2.3 Overall phase saturation through the medium microstructure
Relations similar to (1.21) may be obtained for the phase saturations, taking into account that
the volume of a pore is r
2
L:
S
w
=
r
2
I
+
r
2
II
II
II
w
r
2
, S
oil
=
r
2
III
III
+
r
2
II
II
II
oil
r
2
(1.23)
(The phase saturation is calculated as the volume of pores occupied by this phase divided by the
total volume of pores).
Eqs. (1.23) also satisfy the necessary condition: S
oil
= 1 S
w
.
Eliminating parameters
II
w
and
II
oil
from (1.21a) and (1.23) we obtain the functions
w
(S
w
)
and
oil
(S
oil
):
w
(S
w
) =
I
+
r
2
S
w
r
2
I
r
2
II
oil
(S
oil
) =
III
+
S
oil
r
2
III
r
2
III
r
2
II
(1.24)
Using inequalities (1.21b), we obtain the limitations for the variation of phase saturations:
r
2
I
r
2
S
w

r
2
I
+
II
r
2
II
r
2
III
r
2
III
r
2
S
oil

III
r
2
III
+
II
r
2
II
r
2
(1.25)
Thus, the saturation of both phases cannot be absolutely arbitrary.
1.2.2.4 Saturation of the active cluster
The developed model of pore occupancy allows for describing the active clusters of mobile phases
in terms of saturations instead of pore fractions. This becomes possible to do due to the third
fundamental principle of the micro-theory:
Principle 3:
_
_
the active oil (water) cluster has the same pore distribution as
the overall oil (water) cluster
_
_
(1.26)
Indeed, the active cluster is the subtraction of dead tails from the overall cluster, but the dead
tails are absolutely random and have any correlation with the pore sizes.
As the consequence, the mean pore radius in the active phase cluster is equivalent to the mean
pore radius in the overall innite cluster of the same phase, then we obtain for the saturation of
the active oil and water clusters:
S
mob,oil
=
mob,oil
S
oil
, S
mob,w
=
mob,w
S
w
(1.27)
Then the explicit relationship (??) takes the following form if we replace the total oil fraction
oil
and the active oil fraction
mob,oil
by the total oil saturation S
oil
and the active oil saturation
S
mob,oil
through the relations (1.24) and (1.27) respectively:
S
mob,i
= S
oil
_
0
(1
i
S
i
)
2
+
i
+S
i
_
2
, i = oil, w (1.28)
oil

III
_
1
r
2
III
r
2
II
_
,
w

I
_
1
r
2
I
r
2
II
_
,
r
2
r
2
II
,
0

(1
)
2
(1.29)
For critical mobile saturations which corresponds to the percolation threshold, we obtain from
(1.24) and (1.14):
S
i
=
1
_
1
1 + 2

i
_
, i = oil, w (1.30)
where parameter is given through (1.13).
Instead of (1.28), it is possible to use the exact but implicit solution resulting from (1.18):
S
oil
=
1
_
_
_
S
mob,oil
/S
oil
1
_
1
S
mob,oil
/S
oil
_
1+2

_
_
_ (1.31)
and the similar relation for water.
Due to the dierence between parameters
oil
and
w
the active saturations S
mob,oil
and
S
mob,w
are asymmetrical. The percolation thresholds are also asymmetrical.
1.2.2.5 Parameters
i
and for Rayleigh distribution of pore radii
For concrete distributions of pore radii, the integrals may be calculated in the explicit way.
Very frequently the microscopic theory of porous media uses the Rayleigh distribution shown
in Fig. 1.30.
f(r) = 2re
r
2
, =

4 r
2
where r is the mean pore radius:
This distribution is asymmetrical and reects well the main property of natural media - the
dominance of small pores. This function is apparently similar to the lognormal distribution also
very frequently used in the theory of porous media, but is mono-parametrical.
Figure 1.30: Rayleigh distribution of pore radii
Parameters
i
and are:
_
oil
=

_
r
2
max
r
2
min
_
e
(r
2
min
+r
2
max
)
(1 +r
2
min
) e
r
2
min
(1 +r
2
max
) e
r
2
max
,
w
=
_
r
2
max
r
2
min
_
e
(r
2
min
+r
2
max
)
+r
2
min
e
r
2
min
r
2
max
e
r
2
max
(1 +r
2
min
) e
r
2
min
(1 +r
2
max
) e
r
2
max
,
=
e
r
2
min
e
r
2
max
(1 +r
2
min
) e
r
2
min
(1 +r
2
max
) e
r
2
max
(1.32)
The limits of variation of the saturations are determined by (1.25), which yields:
_
1 +r
2
max
_
e
r
2
max
S
oil

_
1 +r
2
min
_
e
r
2
min
1
_
1 +r
2
min
_
e
r
2
min
S
w
1
_
1 +r
2
max
_
e
r
2
max
(1.33)
It is clearly seen that the properties of water and oil active clusters are asymmetrical.
1.2.2.6 Fitting with experimental data. Parameter
In experiments the oil (or air) was displaced by water at very high pressure gradients in order
to rich the immobile oil saturation. Experiments were repeated for various porous media, which
given the possibility to construct the dependence of S
oil
on the porosity . Evidently in this case
oil occupied initially all the pores, so r
min
= 0. At very high pressure gradients water can enter in
all pores, so r
max
= (or r
max
= r
m
, for uniform pore distribution). Then
min
= 0,
max
= 1.
Consecutively alpha
oil
=
w
= 0 and = 1 whiuch results from (1.32). Then relation (1.30)
yields:
S
oil
=
1
1 + 2
(1.34)
We obtain the case when all the pores are accessible for both the phases and no preference of
occupancy exists. (Due to this
i
= S
i
and
mob,i
= S
mob,i
(i = w, oil)). The calculations based
on (1.34) and experimental data are shown in Fig. 1.31.
Figure 1.31: Comparison of the theoretical model (1.34) for = 4 (blue curve) with experimental
data (points); curve 2 is an empirical correlation
The theoretical curve ts well the experimental data for the porosity lower than 0.3, if = 4.
The red curve is the empirical correlation: S
= 1 1.415
.
The theoretical curve ts well the experimental data for the porosity lower than 0.4, if
4 (1.35)
Substituting the obtained value of in (1.13), we obtain the denite relationship for the Fatt
parameter:
= 2 + 8 (1.36)
This means that for real porous media, the bifurcation of pore network is suciently low - less
than 3 pores cross at one node, for < 0.125.
1.2.2.7 Saturation of the active cluster for displacement process
As mentioned, critical radii r
min
and r
max
are process-dependent. Consider the displacement of
oil by water, and assume that water is the more wetting uid, then relationships (1.22) are valid,
r
min
= 0, which gives the following results for parameters (1.32):
_
oil
=
r
2
max
e
r
2
max
1 (1 +r
2
max
) e
r
2
max
,
w
= 0,
=
1 e
r
2
max
1 (1 +r
2
max
) e
r
2
max
(1.37)
The limits of variation of the saturations are given by (1.38), which yields:
_
1 +r
2
max
_
e
r
2
max
S
oil
1
0 S
w
1
_
1 +r
2
max
_
e
r
2
max
(1.38)
The behavior of the saturation of the active clusters versus oil saturation calculated by using
(1.28) and (1.37) is shown in Fig. 1.32 , for = 0.375, r
max
/ r = 1.4 (solid lines) and r
max
/ r
(dashed lines). The case r
max
/ r = 1.4 means that all the pores are accessible for oil, but
the largest pores are non-accessible for water. The case r
max
/ r means that all pores are
uniformly accessible for both phases.
Figure 1.32: Saturation of the active clusters versus oil saturation;
solid lines: asymmetrical pore occupancy at r
max
/ r = 1.4;
dashed lines: uniform pore occupancy for both phases (r
max
/ r )
As seen, the curves shift to the right when pore occupancy becomes more and more asymmet-
rical. This is due to the fact that non-wetting uid (oil) as always present in large pores, then
at the same saturation as water it occupies smaller number of pores. Due to this the connected
active cluster becomes more dicult to create. As the result, the active oil saturation reduces.
Chapter 2
Transition to macroscale
two-phase equations
45
46 CHAPTER 2. TRANSITION TO MACROSCALE TWO-PHASE EQUATIONS
2.0.2.7.1 Problems of transition to the macroscale in two-phase case One of the main
problem of the theory of ow though porous media consists of developing the macroscopic ow
equations which could describe ow in large ensembles of pores and neglect the exact details of
ow within each pore. In the case of single-phase transport such models may be obtained by
averaging the Navier-Stokes equations over large ensemble of pores. This problem is solved and
leads to the Darcy law:
V

U =
K
(P g) (2.1)
where is the uid density, is the dynamic viscosity, g is the gravity acceleration, P is the
pressure, P is the macroscale pressure gradient, K is the absolute permeability, U is the true
(or intrinsic) macroscopic ow velocity, and V is the so-called Darcy velocity which is preferably
used in the theory of porous media instead of U and which represents the value averaged over all
the medium volume while assuming that the prolongation of the ow velocity to the solid body is
zero.
The averaging procedure provides strict explicit relations for the permeability K as the function
of the micro-structure of porous medium. The micro-structure may be arbitrary except the only
condition to be either periodic or stochastic stationary.
In two-phase case the situation is much more complicated. Two main problems represent a
huge obstacle to apply formal averaging procedures. Both they are related to the behavior of the
interface separating two phases.
Problem 1: phase micro-structure within each pore. First of all, it is necessary to determine the
type of the uid micro-structure within each pore and its variation in time: this can be the lm
structure (one phase represents a lm, while the second one occupies the pore kernel), the meniscus
structure (two phases in a pore are separated by a mobile or immobile meniscus), the separated
structure (each pore es occupied entirely by only one phase), and so on. The dierence between
these structures may be characterized by qualitatively dierent shape of the interface between
the phases. The preference between various structures and the transitions between them are
determined by the tendency of the free energy of the interface to reach minimum. This determines
the coupling of the ow problem with a variational problem of energy minimization. In the case
when the interface is mobile and a priori unknown, such a problem is practically impossible to be
treated in terms of homogenization theory.
Due to this all the existing micro-theories of two-phase ow are based on assuming a xed
phase micro-structure, invariable in space and in time.
47
Problem 2: movement of the global phase interface. Secondly, not all the pore volume is accessible
for each phase, so the averaging of the ow of a phase must be performed over the volume occupied
by this phase only. However, the volume occupied by each phase is mobile and deformable in time,
but the law of its movement is unknown a priori, even if we accept a xed phase micro-structure.
The explicit example of such variations of phase volume is illustrated by the doublet model (Fig.
1.19): the oil volume is not only increasing or decreasing, but also can be cut onto several parts
disconnected between them when menisci pass through the nodes of pores intersection (note that
for all these transformations, the microstructure keeps the same type - the meniscus one). So, it is
necessary to construct the model of deformations of the boundary of the phase volume before to
get down to averaging the ow of each phase over its own volume. As the phase boundary consists
of a number of menisci, this is the same as solving the ow problem at the scale of each pore, just
what we would like to avoid doing.
Instead of doing it, it is possible to consider the phase volume as a stochastic subset on the set
of pores whose boundary is not clearly determined but whose presence in pores is limited some
constraints. For instance, in previous chapter for pseudo single-phase structure, such constraints
were the inaccessibility of several pores to water and to oil, due to which the overall pore set
is divided onto three classes: occupied only by water, occupied only by oil, and which may be
occupied by both phases. We also accepted that the repartition of phases in the last class was
uniform. So it is sucient to determine the limits between the classes in order to determine
stochastically the entire interface. Such limits may be usually easily determined. The similar
approach may be developed for other phase micro-structures.
From these ideas it follows clearly that the relative volume of each phase (phase saturation)
is not sucient to the macroscale description of two-phase ow. The additional signicant pa-
rameters must be the shape of the interface between the phases, its size (the same volume may
have dierent forms) and its evolution. Due to this, the averaged model is expected to be process-
dependent. For instance, if we consider the displacement of oil by water, or the simultaneous ow
of water with microscopic oil drops, the phase boundary will be absolutely dierent in these two
cases.
2.1 Geometrical method
2.1.1 Averaging with factorization of hydrodynamics and geometry
2.1.1.1 Structure of the phase clusters and the limitations for the interface
We will consider the pseudo single-phase microstructure, i.e. each pore is occupied only by one
phase. More strictly, let us assume that:
(i) the real porous media are heterogeneous, so that the pore radii, r, may be considered as
the realization of a stochastic function of space. Let the distribution of pore radii be f(r), such
that
0
f(r)dr = 1. Let the pores be cylinders of dierent radii but a xed length. Let water be
more wetting than oil.
(i) Each pore is entirely occupied by one phase, similar to the case analyzed in paragraph
1.2.1.2 . This means that we exclude from consideration the lm structure, the meniscus structure
and the drops smaller than a pore.
(iii) The wetting phase prefers to occupy the narrowest pores, the non-wetting prefers large
pore, but the classes of acceptable pores for oil and for water are superposed, as in section ?? .
(iv) The mechanical interaction between two phases is neglecting.
Then it follows that:
- the cluster of oil has a tripartite structure, i.e. any oil volume (or saturation S) is automati-
cally repartitioned between the innite active cluster (
mob
), the dead tails of the innite cluster
(
tail
) and the nite disconnected aggregates which remain immobile (
disc
). Water will form the
similar tripartite cluster;
- the fraction of pores creating the innite cluster Y is the unique function of the total fraction
of oil pores , which is given by Eq. (1.10);
- the fraction of pores creating the active cluster of mobile oil,
mob
, is also the unique function
of the total fraction of oil pores and is given by Eq. (1.18).
2.1. GEOMETRICAL METHOD 49
- for this case we have obtained the analytical relations for the saturation of the active cluster
as the function of total saturation, S
mob,oil
(S
oil
) and S
mob,w
(S
w
): equations (??).
The phase clusters boundaries are characterized by two critical pore radii: r
min
which deter-
mines the minimal radius accessible for oil, and r
max
which is the maximal radius accessible for
water.
2.1.1.2 The idea of the method - factorization of hydrodynamics and geometry
The very eective method of averaging two-phase ow consists of reducing the coupled hydrodynamic-
variational problem to a geometrical problem. This allows immediately to remove two fundamental
problems described in the previous paragraph. To illustrate the idea of the method, let us note
that the microscopic velocity of a phase in a pore (averaged over the transverse cross-section)
may be described by a version of Poiseuille law (if we neglect the gravity) whatever the phase
micro-structure:
u =
8r
2

mic
P (2.2)
where u is the true velocity in a pore, r is the pore radius,
mic
P is the pressure gradient at the
scale of a pore.
The simplest way to obtain the Darcy law (2.1) from this micro-equation would be to average
separately
mic
P (hydrodynamics) and r
2
(geometry). This is possible to do, if we assume that
the microscopic pressure gradient
mic
P is low variable on the overall set of pores. In this case
the microscale pressure gradient
mic
P is approximately equal to the macroscale gradient P:
mic
P P
Thus, for the average ow velocity we obtain:
U
8
r
2
P
where means averaging over the volume occupied by the considered phase.
Thus the problem of transition to the macroscale is reduced to the geometrical problem of
averaging a power-value of the pore size, if the phase volume is determined a priori.
As it will be shown in the next sections, for the two-phase case, the equivalence between local
and averaged pressure gradients should be stronger:
mic
P
oil
P
oil
,
mic
P
w
P
w
(2.3)
where P
oil
and P
w
are the pressure gradients averaged over the oil and water cluster respec-
tively.
2.1.1.3 Averaging the phase velocity
Within each innite cluster the ow is single-phase, which means that the problem of macroscopic
description is practically solved: there will be the Darcy law with new hydraulic conductivity which
is not necessarily identical to the conductivity for single-phase ow. But the eective permeability
for each phase will be reduced due to the presence of the second phase. It remains to determine
this reduction quantitatively.
The local oil velocity is dened as:
u
oil
=
_
_
u
oil,mob
=
8r
2
oil
mic
P
oil
, in
mob
0, in
tails
0, in
disc
(2.4)
So for the mean water and oil velocities in active clusters we obtain, by weighting over pore
sections:
_
U
oil
u
oil
oil
= u
mob,oil
mob,oil
S
mob,oil
S
oil
=
8S
mob,oil
oil
S
oil
P
oil
r
4
mob,oil
r
2
mob,oil
,
U
w
u
w
w
= u
mob,w
mob,w
S
mob,w
S
w
=
8S
mob,w
w
S
w
P
w
r
4
mob,w
r
2
mob,w
(2.5)
where
oil
means the average value over the overall oil cluster, while
mob,oil
means averaging
over the active oil cluster. As the mean radius in the cluster of wetting phase is lower that that
of the non-wetting cluster, the velocity of the wetting phase will be also lower at the identical
saturation. We will call this eect the asymmetrical friction.
The creation of the innite cluster is independent of the pore radii (see section 1.2). So the mean
pore radius in the active cluster is the same as the mean pore radius in the overall phase cluster,
then we obtain from (2.5):

U
i
=
8S
mob,i
i
S
i
P
i
r
4
mob,i
r
2
mob,i
=
8S
mob,i
i
S
i
P
i
r
4
i
r
2
i
, i = oil, w.
Taking into account for the tripartite structure of the phase cluster we obtain :
U
oil
=
8S
mob,oil
oil
S
oil
P
oil
r
4
III
III
+
r
4
II
II
oil
II
r
2
III
III
+r
2
II
II
oil
II
,
U
w
=
8S
mob,w
w
S
w
P
w
r
4
I
+
r
4
II
II
w
II
r
2
I
+r
2
II
II
w
II
(2.6)
where
II
w
and
II
oil
is the fraction of water and oil respectively in the pores of class II.
2.1.1.4 Relation between averaged phase velocity and phase saturation
In the last relation the macroscale velocity is dened through the fraction
II
i
, i = oil, w which is
unknown. But it can be related with the overall saturation, which gives the possibility to introduce
explicitly the phase saturation (which will lead nally to the relative permeability as the function
of saturation).
At a given oil saturation S
oil
oil occupies large pores between r
max
and (class III), and
partially the intermediate pores between r
min
and r
max
(class II). The fraction of oil in pores of
class II is
oil
II
. Then the oil saturation is dened as the ratio of the mean volume of pores occupied
by oil, divided by the mean pore volume of the medium, which gives the relation (1.23):
S
oil
=
r
2
III
III
+
r
2
II
II
oil
II
r
2
(2.7)
Eliminating
II
oil
from (2.6) and (2.7), we obtain the relation between the macroscale velocity
and saturation:
U
oil
=
8S
mob,oil
oil
S
2
oil
P
oil
_
r
4
III
III
r
2
r
4
II
r
2
II
_
S
oil
r
2
III
III
r
2
__
2.1.1.5 Relative permeability
For the Darcy phase velocity (see (2.1)) we obtain:
V
oil
=
8S
mob,oil
oil
S
oil
P
oil
_
r
4
III
III
r
2
r
4
II
r
2
II
_
S
oil
r
2
III
III
r
2
__
(2.8)
For single phase ow of oil this yields:
V
oil
(S
oil
= 1) =
K
oil
P
oil
, K 8
r
4
r
2
Then for the two-phase case, relation (2.8) gives:

_
V
oil
=
K k
oil
(S
oil
)
oil
P
oil
,
k
oil
(S
oil
)
S
mob,oil
S
oil
(
1
S
oil
+
o2
) =
=
_
oil
+S
oil
0
(1
oil
S
oil
)
2
_
2
(
1
S
oil
+
o2
) ;
oil

III
_
1
r
2
III
r
2
II
_
,
r
2
r
2
II
,
1
=
r
4
II
r
2
r
4
r
2
II
,
o2
=
III
_
r
4
III
r
4
r
4
II
r
2
III
r
4
r
2
II
_
,
0

(1
)
2
,
=
1
1 + 8
(2.9)
In the similar way, for water:
_
V
w
=
K k
w
(S
w
)
w
P
w
,
k
w
(S
w
)
S
mob,w
S
w
(
1
S
w
+
w2
) =
=
_
w
+S
w
0
(1
w
S
w
)
2
_
2
(
1
S
w
+
w2
) ,
w

I
_
1
r
2
I
r
2
II
_
,
w2
=
I
_
r
4
I
r
4
r
4
II
r
2
I
r
4
r
2
II
_
(2.10)
Herein k
i
are the relative permeabilities (RP).
The saturation of mobile oil and water is the function of the overall saturation dened by
relationships (1.28) and (??).
The obtained RP are nonlinear functions of saturation dened in a limited range of saturation
variation (1.38).
2.1.1.6 Calculation of the relative permeabilities
For the Rayleigh distribution of pore radii (??), one obtains the following explicit relations for
coecients of Eqs. (2.9) and (2.10):
oil
=
1
Q
_
E
min
E
max
(R
max
R
min
)
_
,
w
=
1
Q
_
E
min
E
max
(R
max
R
min
) +R
min
E
min
R
max
E
max
_
,
=
1
Q
(E
min
E
max
) ,
1
=
1
Q
_
_
1 +R
min
+ 0.5R
2
min
_
E
min
_
1 +R
max
+ 0.5R
2
max
_
E
max
_
,
o2
=
E
min
E
max
2Q
_
R
2
max
(1 +R
min
) R
2
min
(1 +R
max
)
_
,
w2
=
1
2Q
_
E
min
E
max
_
R
2
min
(1 +R
max
) R
2
max
(1 +R
min
)
+E
max
R
2
max
E
min
R
2
min
_
;
R
min
r
2
min
, R
max
r
2
max
, E
min
e
r
2
min
, E
max
e
r
2
max
,
Q
_
1 +r
2
min
_
e
r
2
min
_
1 +r
2
max
_
e
r
2
max
(2.11)
The system of equations which calculates the relative permeabilities becomes algebraic.
The shape of the RP calculated by using (??) and (??) is shown in Fig. 2.1.
The dashed lines correspond to the saturation of the active cluster of mobile phases (??) The
left-hand gure corresponds to the case when water can entre practically in all pores (r
max
is
large), while oil cannot entre in pores whose size is lower than 0.8 of the mean pore size. Due to
this the high oil saturations, over 0.92, are inaccessible.
Figure (b) describes another case when water cannot entre in pores whose radius is twofold
a b
Figure 2.1: Relative permeabilities calculated by means of (??) (for = 0.4) which take into
account for the tripartite structure of phase clusters and the eect of asymmetrical friction. The
dashed lines correspond to the mobile saturations (??): (a) r
min
/ r = 0.8, r
max
/ r = 4.2; (b)
r
min
/ r = 0, r
max
/ r = 2
larger than the mean pore radius, while oil can enter in all pores. In this case the low oil saturations
are inaccessible.
The asymmetrical behaviour of RP caused by the eect of asymmetrical friction and asym-
metrical constraints r
min
and r
max
is clearly seen.
As seen, the dierence between the behavior of the relative permeability and the mobile satu-
ration frequently is neglecting.
Equations (??) with closure relationships (??) represent the Darcy law for two-phase ow.
2.1.2 Other equations of the macroscopic model
2.1.2.1 Eective capillary pressure
The capillary phenomena give rise to the appearance of two pressures dierent in two phases. The
dierence of phase pressures is known as the Laplace capillary pressure. This eect is local and
takes place just in the vicinity of curvilinear interfaces. In porous medium the interface is highly
developed, then the dierence between two phase pressures becomes uniformly manifested in all
medium. The dierence between the macroscopic phase pressures is called the eective capillary
pressure:
P
ef
c
= P
oil
P
w
(2.12)
To determine it, one applies the Laplace equation which should be now expressed in terms of
some macroscopic variables instead of the pore radius.
In the theory of medium permeability it is known the relation which is easy to obtain by
assuming the Poiseuille law in each pore: K
r
2
, where is the porosity, and
r
2
is the
mean value of the square of pore radius. Then the mean pore radius may be presented through
the macroscopic values as:
r
K/ (2.13)
Then the eective capillary pressure may be presented in the form similar to the Laplace
equation (??):
P
ef
c
=
2 cos
K/
J(S) (2.14)
where the dimensionless parameter J is called J-function, is empirical and ensures the t with
experimental data. It is possible to show that J is the function of saturation which is presented
in Fig. 2.2.
Figure 2.2: J-function (dimensionless eective capillary pressure) as the function of water satura-
tion
2.1.2.2 Dependence of the capillary pressure on saturation
The eective capillary pressure remains suciently fuzzy concept which is introduced not theoret-
ically, but by analogy with microscopic capillary phenomena. The appearance and the structure
of this function is based on a logics, which plays the fundamental role in the two-phase theory.
Let us consider the following experiment. A cylindrical porous simple is initially occupied by a
wetting uid (water). The lateral surface of the simple is impermeable except the inlet and outlet
cross-sections. We begin to displace water by injecting oil from the inlet. Being non-wetting oil
cannot enter freely into the medium, so we push it by applying a small external pressure dierence
P
1
. A small volume of oil enters in the medium, by reducing the water saturation up to S
w1
,
Fig. 2.3.
Figure 2.3: Experiment which determines the eective capillary pressure
We reach the steady-state ow of oil. The steady-state means a mechanical equilibrium, so the
external pressure drop is equilibrated by an internal force. Such a force may be only the eective
capillary pressure. Then we obtain the rst value of the capillary pressure P
ef
c1
= P
1
which
corresponds to the saturation S
w1
.
At the next step we increase P, which leads to the additional reduction of water saturation.
We obtain the next point P
ef
c2
= P
2
and S
2
, etc. The obtained function is monotonically
decreasing.
When the water saturation reduces up to the percolation threshold S
w
, water remains immo-
bile even at very high pressure dierence. Theoretically this gives us the innite capillary pressure
for S
w
. Thus the function P
ef
c
(S
w
) has been constructed and it has the form shown in Fig. 2.2
2.1.2.3 Mass balance equations
In uid mechanics the mass balance equation for a single-phase ow is formulated as:
1
dM
dt
=

t
+ div
_
U
_
= 0 (2.15)
which represents the variation in time of the uid mass M in the xed space volume divided by
:
1
dM
dt
.
For two-phase case, the mass balance is formulated for each phase. In porous medium each
phase occupies its own volume
i
. The porous space occupies the volume
por
. Let us consider
the value
1
dM
i
dt
(i = w, oil):
1
dM
i
dt
=
d
_
i
1
_
dt
=
d
_
por
por
_
dt
=
d (
i
S
i
)
dt
where S
i

i
por
is the phase saturation, while

por
is the medium porosity.

Thus, with respect to (2.15) the uid density should be simply replaced by
i
S
i
. We obtain
the mass conservation equations:
i
S
i
t
+ div
_
i
S
i
U
i
_
= 0, i = w, oil (2.16)
2.1.2.4 Equations of phase state and rheological EOS
An equation of state relates the uid density and pressure (at a xed temperature and uid compo-
sition). In the theory of immiscible ow one uses usually the hypothesis of uid incompressibility
for liquids, and the equations of ideal gases for gases.
The equation of state form porous medium determines the variation of its porosity and per-
meability as the functions of pressure. Usually the non-deformable media are considered.
The rheological equations of state determine the behaviour of phase viscosities. For isothermal
process with a limited variation of pressure, the assumption on invariable phase densities works
frequently well both for liquids and gases.
2.1.2.5 Overall system of macroscopic equations for two-phase ow
Collecting all the results we obtain:
i
S
i
t
+ div
_
i
S
i
U
i
_
= 0, i = w, oil (2.17)
V
oil
=
Kk
oil
(S)
oil
(grad P
oil
oil
g) ,

V
w
=
Kk
w
(S)
w
(grad P
w
w
g) (2.18)
P
oil
P
w
= P
ef
c
(S
w
) =
2 cos
K/
J(S) (2.19)
in which the functions k
i
(S
w
) are given by relations (??). Function J (S
w
) is given by experimental
graphics for each individual case.
The closure relations are the equations of state.
Chapter 3
Macroscale theory of immiscible
two-phase ow
59
60 CHAPTER 3. MACROSCALE THEORY OF IMMISCIBLE TWO-PHASE FLOW
3.1 Fundamental equations of two-phase immiscible ow
3.1.1 Particularity of a two-phase system
Two phases are separated by an interface, so they cannot occupy the overall volume of the domain.
This is the basic dierence between a two-phase and a single-phase system. In the single-phase
mixture (a chemical solution) all the porous space is accessible for any component. In the two-
phase case each phase occupies its own space volume.
Let us examine a xed volume
por
of the porous space in the total volume . For the
single-phase mixture whose masse is M, the masse of a chemical component (k) is:
M
(k)
= MC
(k)
=
por
C
(k)
= C
(k)
where C
(k)
is the masse fraction of component k: C
(k)
M
(k)
_
M.
For the two-phase system, in which each phase i occupies volume
i
, the masse of the phase i
is :
M
i
=
i
i
=
i
por
s
i
=
i
s
i
(3.1)
where
i
is the density of phase i , and s
i
is the volume fraction of the phase i called the
saturation :
s
i

i
/ (3.2)
So in two-phase case, the saturations appear instead of the mass (or molar) concentrations.
3.1.2 Fluid constitution
Two uids are totally immiscible, but represent a ne disperse system of one uid within the
second one. At the macroscale the structure of the uid repartition is not visible, so the system
3.1. FUNDAMENTAL EQUATIONS OF TWO-PHASE IMMISCIBLE FLOW 61
is observed as a continuous mixture. At the same time, at the scale of a single droplet the two
uids are separated by in interface. Therefore we deal with a two-phase mixture. Each uid
represents a phase . We assume that the mass exchange between the phases is zero, so the
phase composition of each phase does not change in time and in space. Due to this the internal
phase composition has no signicance.
The presence of two phases is identied by the phase saturation s.
We assume the following notations:
- phase 1 = water ,
- phase 2 = oil
- s s
w
= 1 s
oil
is the water saturation
3.1.3 Mass balance of each phase
According to (3.1), the conservation of the mass of the phase i may be formulated as :
1
dM
i
dt

(s
i
)
t
+ div
_
s
i
U
i
_
= 0, i = w, oil (3.3)
Factor S
i
is the eective porosity which corresponds to the phase i.
The two-phase Darcys velocity are introduced as :
V
i
=

U
i
s
i
(3.4)
Then the mass balance becomes:
(s
i)
t
+ div
_
V
i
_
= 0, i = w, oil (3.5)
3.1.4 Momentum balance with no interaction
Each phase ows within its own volume as a single-phase homogeneous uid. If the ow of phase
i is not inuenced mechanically by the ow of the second phase (no momentum exchange between
the phases), so the true velocity of each phase within its own volume is the same as for the totally
single-phase ow. Thus the true velocity can be determined from the single-phase Darcy law:
U
i
=
K
i
(gradP
i
i
g)
z is the vertical axis oriented up.
Then for the two-phase Darcy velocity (3.4) we obtain the two-phase Darcy law:
V
i
=
Ks
i
i
(gradP
i
i
g) (3.6)
The factor s
i
takes into account the fact that the velocity of the phase i tends to 0 when this
phase disappears (s
i
0 ), and tends to a single phase law when s
i
1.
3.1.5 General two-phase Darcys law
In general case when the uid interacts and the properties of the individual domains occupied
by the phases are not identical (i.e. the absolute permeability of these sub-domains are not
equivalent), the two-phase Darcy law has the more general form :
V
i
=
Kk
i
(s)
i
(gradP
i
i
g) , i = w, oil (3.7)
were k
i
(s) are the relative permeabilities (dimensionless) = RP.
In the two-phase theory it is accepted that RP are the unique functions of saturation only and
have a universal non linear form shown in Fig. 3.1
Figure 3.1: Relative permeabiliries
3.1.6 Closure relationships
System of 4 equations (3.5) and (3.7) should be completed with 5 equations in order to dene 9
variables :
V
1
,

V
2
, P
1
, P
2
, s,
1
,
2
,
1
,
2
3.1. FUNDAMENTAL EQUATIONS OF TWO-PHASE IMMISCIBLE FLOW 63
They are :
- Equation of state of each uid phase :
i
=
i
(P
i
)
- Rheological EOS for each phase :
i
=
i
(P
i
)
- Capillary equilibrium: P
1
= P
2
+P
c
, where P
c
is the capillary pressure.
The capillary pressure is the phenomenon generated by curved interfaces between phases. It
is known that a curved interface causes a dierence between phase pressures which called the
capillary pressure. This pressure is proportional to the surface curvature. For a plate interface,
P
c
= 0.
For porous media, P
c
is the averaged capillary pressure (over an ERV). This variable is the
monotonic decreasing function of saturation and is calculated by using experimental data.
3.2 Canonical theory of horizontal two-phase displacement
3.2.1 1D model of two-phase ow
3.2.1.1 Conservation equations
Hypotheses:
Fluids are incompressible; medium is homogeneous; ow is 1D and horizontal; capillarity is
negligible:
P
w
= P
oil
P (3.8)
Masse balance, from (3.2) :
s
t
+
V
w
x
= 0, (3.9a)
s
t
+
V
oil
x
= 0 (3.9b)
Momentum balance, from (3.4) projected on the horizontal axis x :
V
w
=
w
P
x
, V
oil
=
oil
P
x
, where
oil

Kk
oil
oil
,
w

Kk
w
w
(3.10)
3.2.1.2 Canonical Buckley-Leverett model
System (3.9) - (3.8) may be transformed into one nonlinear equation of convective transport:
s
t
+U
F(s)
x
= 0 (3.11)
where U = V
w
+V
oil
is the total ow velocity; F(s) is the fractional ow:
F(s)

w
oil
+
w
=
k
w
(s)
k
w
(s) +k
oil
(s)
,

w
oil
(3.12)
3.2. CANONICAL THEORY OF HORIZONTAL TWO-PHASE DISPLACEMENT 65
The equivalent form is:
s
t
+W(s)
s
x
= 0, W(s) UF
(s) (3.13)
where W(S) is the transport velocity. (U is the true velocity, V is the Darcy velocity)
Proof:
1. Summing up (3.9) we get:
V
x
= 0, V V
w
+V
w
= V (t) (3.14)
We will accept, for the sake of simplicity, that V = const.
2. Summing up (3.10), we obtain:
V = (
oil
+
w
)
P
x
, or
P
x
=
V
oil
+
w
3. Let us substitute the last relation into the rst equation in (3.10):
V
w
= V F(s) (3.15)
Function F(s) is the fractional ow (3.12): F(s)

w
oil
+
w
.
4. Substituting relation (3.15) into (3.9a) we obtain (3.11).
3.2.1.3 Fractional ow
Function (3.12) called the fractional ow has the following equivalent form which reveals its phys-
ical meaning:
F(s) =
V
w
V
=
Q
w
Q
(3.16)
where Q is the ow rate.
Thus F is the fraction of water in the total ow rate.
Eq. (3.16) can be obtained from (3.12) by multiplying the numerator and the denominator by
grad P:
F(s) =
k
w
w
P
x
k
w
w
P
x
+
k
oil
oil
P
x
= {due to Darcys law} =
V
w
V
The typical form of this function is presented in Fig. 3.2.
Figure 3.2: Typical form of the fractional ow
Indeed, the behavior of the fractional ow function at small and high saturations is:
when s 0, then (3.12) yields: k
w
0, k
oil
1; F(s)
k
w
(s)

when s 1, then k
w
1, k
oil
0; F(s)
1
1 +k
oil

1 k
oil
+...
This means that at small saturations the fractional ow repeats the behavior of the water
relative permeability, while at large saturation the function 1 F repeats the behavior of the oil
relative permeability. Thus, F 0, when 0 s s
, F 1, when s
s 1. Herein S
is the
threshold water saturation (percolation threshold); 1 s
= s
oil,
is the percolation threshold for
oil.
The diagonal on this plot corresponds to the case when the true ow velocities of both phases
would be equivalent. Therefore, the solid line implies that water is slower then oil at small
saturations and faster than oil at high saturations.
3.2.1.4 Determination of the total velocity U
The Buckley-Leverett equation (3.11) is closed if the total velocity U is known. This value may
be obtained from the boundary condition at the injection well. Let the water injection rate Q
inj
be given. Let A
w
be the lateral surface of the well which is in contact with the reservoir. Then
for the injection ow rate we can write: Q
inj
= A
w
s
w
U
w
|
x=0
.
The injected uid is the pure water (without oil), so s
w
|
x=0
= 1 and s
oil
|
x=0
= 0. Then
we obtain: Q
inj
= A
w
s
w
U
w
|
x=0
= A
w
s
w
U
w
|
x=0
+ A
w
s
oil
U
oil
|
x=0
= A
w
(V
w
+V
oil
)|
x=0
=
A
w
V |
x=0
.
As the total velocity V does not depend on x, according to (3.14), then
V = Q
inj
/A
w
, or U = Q
inj
_
(A
w
) (3.17)
3.2.1.5 Displacement problem as a Riemann problem
The problem of water injection is described by the following system of relations:
s
t
+U
F(s)
x
= 0, x > 0, t > 0 (3.18a)
s |
t=0
= s
0
(3.18b)
s
x=0
= s
inj
1 (3.18c)
where s
0
is the initial water saturation in the reservoir, s
inj
is the saturation at the injection point.
This problem describes the permanent injection of water into reservoir initially containing
1 s
0
volume part of oil and s
0
part of water.
Such a system represents the mixed boundary-initial problem (the Riemann problem) for the
rst-order hyperbolic equation (3.18a). The problem may be easily transformed into the equivalent
initial problem but considered in the innite domain:
s
t
+U
F(s)
x
= 0, < x < +, t > 0 (3.19a)
s |
t=0
= s
init
(x) =
_
_
s
inj
, x 0
s
0
, x > 0
(3.19b)
In the future we will use the formulation (3.19).
Problem (3.19) describes the process in which water permanently comes to point x = 0 from
the negative part of the reservoir.
3.2.1.6 Principle of maximum
One of the main properties of this problem consists in that the water saturation in the reservoir
cannot become higher than the injected saturation and cannot become lower than the initial
saturation:
s
0
s s
inj
(3.20)
Indeed, if we inject water into a reservoir which already contains the water amount s
0
, then
the amount of water in the reservoir can only increase. This explains the left-hand side of (3.20).
The right-hand side of (3.20) means that the saturation at any point of the reservoir cannot
be higher than the saturation at the point of injection. This is similar to the process of heating:
the temperature at any point of the heated body can not be higher than the temperature of the
heater.
Do to this the expected form of the solution is shown in Fig. 3.3.
Figure 3.3: Expected shape of the solution
3.2.2 Formal continuous solution od the displacement problem
3.2.2.1 Continuous solution: physical method
The formal continuous solution to this problem is easy to construct by simple physical considera-
tions.
The physical interpretation of the equation (3.19a) is the following: this equation says that
each value of saturation is transported at velocity W(s) which is individual, in this case, for any
saturation values. If W was constant, then all saturation values would be transported at the
same velocity. In our case W depends on s, then each value of saturation has its own transport
velocity. So we can now consider each saturation value as an individual physical object (a physical
particle) and analyze the transport of this particle independently of other particles. Knowing
the transport velocity, it is easy to calculate the transport distance:
x = W(s)t = UF
(s) t (3.21)
This is the implicit equation which determines the saturation as the function of x and t.
Another way to obtain the same solution, more formal, is described in the next paragraph.
3.2.2.2 Continuous solution: method of characteristics
The formal solution to this problem is easy to construct by the method of characteristics.
Let us introduce special trajectories x(t) which are undened, for the moment. Then function
s(x, t) along a trajectory will be the composed function of time only: s = s (x(t), t). Then the
time derivative of this function is:
ds (x(t), t)
dt
=
s
t
+
s
x
dx
dt
(3.22)
If we dene now the trajectories as:
dx
dt
= W = UF
(s) (3.23)
then equation (3.13) will be equivalent to (3.22). Thus, the Buckley-Leverett model becomes:
ds (x(t), t)
dt
= 0, or s (x(t), t) = const (3.24)
along each trajectory.
The trajectories dened as (3.23) are called the characteristic lines.
The physical meaning of the characteristic lines follows from (3.23) which says that each
characteristic line is that line along which a constant value of saturation is transported. The
velocity of transport is dx/dt.
System (3.23) and (3.24) is the general solution of the Buckley-Leverett equation (3.19a):
_
_
s = const
dx
dt
= UF
(s)
(3.25)
To solve the displacement problem (3.19), this solution should satisfy the initial condition
(3.19b). This condition can be inverted by giving the initial condition to function x(t) describing
the characteristic lines:
x(0) = x
init
(s) (3.26)
where x
init
(s) is the function inverse to s
0
(x) in (3.19b). Eq. (3.26) is the initial condition for the
dierential equation (3.25). The solution to (3.25), (3.26) is:
x = x
init
(s) +UF
(s) t (3.27)
Function x
init
(s) represents the coordinate corresponding to the initial location of the satura-
tion value s. For the condition (3.19b), which means that all the values of saturation between s
0
and s
inj
are located at point x
init
= 0, we obtain denitely from (3.27):
x = UF
(s) t, for s
0
s s
inj
(3.28)
Outside this interval, the solution does not exist.
3.2.2.3 Non-existence of continuous solution
For a xed saturation s, its transport velocity is W(s) = UF
(s). Then the distance of transport

is x = Wt = UF
(s) t. For a xed time t, the distance of transport is then proportional to

the derivative of the fractional ow. This derivative is a non-monotonic function of saturation as
presented in Fig. 3.4. Then, for a xed time t, the distances of transport for various saturation
values will have the same form of a non-monotonic function.
Figure 3.4: Non-monotonic dependence of transport distances on saturation
Turning the plot x(s) we obtain the function s(x) for xed t (Fig. 3.5-a.
This function does not satisfy the initial condition (3.19b). To satisfy it, it is necessary to
construct the nal continuous solution as the continuous combination of the curve presented in
Fig. 3.5-a and the constant line s s
0
, as shown in Fig. 3.5-b. Taking into account that a
constant value is the solution of the Buckley-Leverett equation (3.19a), such a combination will
be also the solution to the equation (3.19a) which satises condition (3.19b).
Figure 3.5: Fragment of the formal continuous solution (a); the overall formal continuous solution
(b)
It is obvious that this solution determines non-unique values of saturation at each point x as
seen from Fig. 3.5-b. Thus the formal continuous solution is non-unique, so it does not exist.
We should then nd a solution in the class of discontinuous functions - we will introduce a
discontinuity = a shock.
3.2.3 Discontinuous solutions. Shocks
3.2.3.1 Introduction of shocks
We try to search the solution in the class of discontinuous functions shown in Fig. refms6-a. Is is
expected to consist of three parts:
I : the simple wave (or the rarefaction wave);
II : the shock;
III: the plateau which corresponds to the initial condition.
The rarefaction wave represents a part of the continuous solution. A plateau is also the
solution to the homogeneous equation (3.19a). So the rarefaction wave and the plateau verify the
dierential equation (3.19a). However the shock cannot be the solution of a dierential equation.
Due to this the shock is not determined yet. As seen a shock is determined by two parameters:
s
f
: the saturation behind the shock;
x
f
: the mobile coordinate of the shock, or the shock velocity U
f
.
The solution in the zone of the simple wave is given by the implicit equation (3.21).
a b
Figure 3.6: Replacement of the continuous solution by discontinuous one (a); expected structure
of the discontinuous solution (b)
3.2.3.2 Mass balance at a shock (Hugoniots conditions)
The shock is not described by dierential equation which represents physically the mass balance
of water. So the shock is the unique point in the ow domain which doest not satisfy yet the mass
conservation law. Thus we should formulate mass conservation in the vicinity of the shock.
Let us consider the most general case when the water velocity (U
w
) can be dierent from that
of the shock (U
f
). Then water crosses the shock at the velocity (U
w
U
f
). Then the conservation
of water mass crossing the shock will be:
Water ow rate behind the shock = water ow rate before the shock
Figure 3.7:
Let A be the total cross-section. The back ow rate is s
(U
w

U
f
)A. The forward ow rate is s
+
(U
+
w
U
f
)A. The symbols +
and correspond to two sides of the shock (Fig. 3.7). The masse
balance is then:
s
(U
w
U
f
)A = s
+
(U
+
w
U
f
)A
The velocity expressed trough the fractional ow, by using (3.16),
is:
U
w
=
V
w
s
=
V F(s)
s
=
UF(s)
s
, U
f
= U
F
+
F
s
+
s
Or, for our case when s

+
= s
0
:
U
f
U
=
F(s
f
) F(s
0
)
s
f
s
0
(3.29)
which is the mass balance in the vicinity of a shock. This is also called the Hugoniot relation, or
Hugoniot-Rankin relation.
This equation is not sucient to determine two unknown variables: s
f
and x
f
. We should then
obtain the second equation.
The same conditions can be obtained in two other ways which are described in the Annexe 2
and 3.
3.2.3.3 Second method of deducing Hugoniot condition
Another method to obtain the Hugoniot condition at the shock is frequently used in engineering
literature. The principle of mass conservation, which is the basis of this relation, can be inter-
preted in the following way: whatever the solution, continuous or discontinuous, both them should
correspond to the same mass of the injected water at any time instant.
For incompressible uids, the masses may be replaced by volumes, so the volume of water
injected must be identical for continuous and discontinuous solutions. The total injected volume
is the dierence between the total water volume in the reservoir minus the initial water volume
already presented in the reservoir:
x
f
(t)
por
_
s(x, t) s
0
dx, where
por
is the pore volume.
Thus, we need to calculate the integral: I
x
f
(t)
0
_
s(x, t) s
0
dx.
For the continuous and discontinuous solutions this integral corresponds to the grey zones in
Fig. 3.8.
Figure 3.8: Second method to obtain Hugoniot conditions
The equivalence of the volumes injected means the equivalence of these two grey areas. As the
fragment ABG is identical for both the curves, we should ask the equivalence between the area
GBDE on the left and GBCE on the right.
The rectangle area GBDE on the left is: x
f
_
s
f
s
0
_
= U
f
t
_
s
f
s
0
_
.
The area GBCE on the right corresponds entirely to the rarefaction wave which is described
by the equation (3.21) x = UF
(s)t. So the integral GBCE is easy to calculate for the inverse

function x(s) given by this equation:
s
f
s
0
x(s, t)ds = Ut
s
f
s
0
F
(s)ds = Ut
_
F (s
f
) F
_
s
0
_
From the equivalence of these two areas we obtain: U
f
_
s
f
s
0
_
= U
_
F (s
f
) F
_
s
0
_
, which
is the Hugoniot condition (3.29).
3.2.3.4 Third method of deducing Hugoniot condition
The third method to obtain the Hugoniot condition at the shock is used in mathematical literature.
Let us consider the trace of the shock on the plane (x, t) and its displacement from point M to
point N, which corresponds to the displacement of shock at the distance x during the period
t, as shown in Fig. 3.9.
Figure 3.9: Third method to obtain Hugoniot conditions
Let us select the small element xt in the vicinity of the shock and consider the integral mass
conservation equation in this element, which can be obtained from the original dierential mass
conservation equation (2.2.4) by integrating over x and t:
0 =
x+x
x
t+t
t
_
s
t
+U
F
x
_
dtdx =
=
x+x
x
_
s(x, t + t) s(x, t)
_
dx +U
t+t
t
_
F(x + x, t) F(x, t)
_
dt
x,t0
_
s(x
, t + t) s(x
, t)
_
x +U
_
F(x + x, t
) F(x, t
)
_
t
where x x
x + x; and t t
t + t.
Then 0 = (s
+
s
) x +U (F
F
+
) t, or
x
t
U
f
= U
F
F
+
s
+
s
. This is the Hugoniot

condition (3.29).
3.2.3.5 Stability condition at a shock
The second relationship at the shock ensures the stability of the shock movement. It is obtained
in the following way.
In Fig. 3.7, point M belongs to the shock and to the simple wave simultaneously, so its velocity
should be that of the front, U
f
and that of the simple wave W(s
f
). We obtain then, using (3.13):
U
f
= W(s
f
) UF
(s
f
) (3.30)
Eqs. (3.29) and (3.30) yield:
F
(s
f
) =
F(s
f
) F(s
0
)
s
f
s
0
(3.31)
This is a nonlinear equation which determines the shock saturation. The shock is totally
determined.
3.2.3.6 Graphical image of a shock
Let us examine the diagram F(s), Fig. 3.10.
Points A and B correspond to the initial state A =
_
s
0
, F(s
0
)
_
and to the injection state
B =
_
s
inj
, F(s
inj
)
_
. Let us construct the straight line from point A which is tangent to the curve
F(s). Let C be the point of tangency. Then the abscissa of point C is the saturation at the shock
Figure 3.10: Graphical image of a shock
S
f
, while the tangent of line AC is the dimensionless velocity of the shock:
tg =
U
f
U
(3.32)
Proof: The following is true for triangle ABC:
tg =
CD
DA
=
F(s
f
) F(s
0
)
F(s
f
) F(s
0
)
()
On the other hand, according to the construction:
tg = F
(s
f
) ()
Equating these two formulae we obtain (3.31). Comparing (**) with (3.30) we obtain (3.32).
The straight line AC is called the Welge tangent in reservoir engineering, or the Oleinik envelop in
mathematics.
Thus, a shock is presented in the diagram F(s) by a straight line relating the points corresponding to
the saturation before and behind this shock. In the examined case this line is, in addition, tangent to the
curve F(s). This is however not necessary, as this will be shown in the next section.
3.2.3.7 Piston-like shocks
In several situations the shock is not associated to a tangent line. This is observed when the Welge
tangent line does not exist. Another situation corresponds to the case when the Welge tangent
line exists but leaves the domain of the solution existence.
Let us consider the situation when the injection saturation is lower than the saturation s
f
in
the diagram 3.10. This situation is shown in Fig. 3.11-a.
Figure 3.11: Appearance of the piston-like shock
Physically this means that we inject a two-phase uid which contains s
inj
of water and 1s
inj
of oil.
According to the principle of maximum (3.20), the saturation values higher than s
inj
cannot
be reached. So the solution will have very simple structure which will consists of two plateaus and
a shock between them determined by the straight line AB which is not tangent to function F(s).
The solution is presented in Fig. 3.11-b.
As seen, such a shock works as a piston which displaces completely all the initial oil. That oil
which can be observed behind the shock is not the initial one, but is the injected oil.
The velocity of the piston-like shock is determined by the tangent of line AB or by the Hugoniot
condition (3.29):
U
f
= U
F(s
inj
) F(s
0
)
s
inj
s
0
(3.33)
The stability condition is not needed.
3.2.4 Recovery factor
3.2.4.1 Relation between recovery factor and average saturation
Let us introduce the recovery factor: RF =
recovered oil mass
initial oil volume in the mass
For an incompressible oil we obtain: RF =
recovered oil volume
initial oil volume in the reservoir
Moreover, if both oil and water are incompressible, then the recovered volume is exactly equal
to the injected volume:
RF =
injected water volume
initial oil volume
=
(total water volume) - (initial water volume)
initial oil volume
Then:
RF =
V
por
_
s
w
s
0
w
_
V
por
s
0
oil
=
s
w
s
0
w
1 s
0
w
(3.34)
where s
w
is the average water saturation in the reservoir.
The most practical interest represents the instant t
of the water breakthrough into production

wells. In terms of the Buckley-Leverett problem the breakthrough instant will correspond to the
approaching of the shock to the production well. So at this instant all the reservoir between two
wells will be occupied by that fragment of the solution which is called the simple wave, as shown
in Fig. 3.12.
Figure 3.12: Water saturation in the reservoir at the breakthrough instant
At this instant we obtain for the recovery factor:
RF (t
) =
s
w
(t
) s
0
w
1 s
0
w
s
w
(t
) (3.35)
So it is sucient to calculate the mean water saturation on the plot in Fig. 3.12 to estimate
the breakthrough recovery.
3.2.4.2 Average water saturation at the breakthrough instant
The calculation of the average saturation is performed by using the implicit solution for the simple
wave (3.21):
x = W(s)t
= UF
(s)t
(3.36)
The average water saturation is: s
w
(t
) =
1
L
L
0
s (x, t
) dx. where the integral represents the

area ABCDEA in Fig. 3.12. The area BCDE is s
f
L = s
f
U
f
t
. The area ABE is easy calculated

as the integral of the inverse function x(s):
1
s
f
x(s, t
)ds = Ut
s
f
F
(s)ds = Ut
(1 F(s
f
))
This yields:
S
w
(t
) =
t
L
[s
f
U
f
+U (1 F(s
f
))] =
1
U
f
[s
f
U
f
+U (1 F(s
f
))] = s
f
+ (1 F(s
f
))
U
U
f
Using the kinematic condition (3.30) we obtain:
S
w
(t
) = S
f
+
1 F(s
f
)
F
(s
f
)
(3.37)
3.2.4.3 Another method of derivation the relation for the average saturation
Using (3.36) it is possible to eliminate all the distances (x and L) and to obtain the explicit relation
for s
w
through other characteristic values of saturation.
Let us use (3.36) for dx and L: dx = Ut
(s)ds, L = Ut
(s
f
).
Then
s
w
(t
) =
Ut
Ut
(s
f
)
s(x=L)
s(x=0)
sF
(s)ds =
1
F
(s
f
)
s
f
1
sF
(s)ds ()
Dierentiation by parts leads to: (sF
= sF
+F
. Then (*) becomes:

s
w
(t
) =
1
F
(s
f
)
s
f
1
_
(sF
_
ds =
1
F
(s
f
)
[s
f
F
(s
f
) F
(1) F(s
f
) +F(1)]
According to Fig. 3.1, F(1) = 1, F
(1) = 0, then we obtain (3.37).

3.2.4.4 Graphical determination of breakthrough recovery
Equation (3.37) has simple graphical interpretation: the average breakthrough saturation s
w
(t
)
is the abscissa of point M of intersection between the Welge tangent and the line F = 1, as shown
in Fig. 3.13.
Figure 3.13: Graphical determination of breakthrough recovery
Proof:
Let us examine triangle BMC. For angle =MBC the following is true:
tg =
MC
CB
=
1 F (s
f
)
s s
f
On the other hand, line ABM is tangent to the curve F(s) at point B, so: tg = F
(s
f
). Comparing
these two relations, we obtain:
1 F (s
f
)
s s
f
= F
(s
f
).
Rearranging this equation we obtain:
1 F (s
f
)
F
(s
f
)
= s s
f
, which is identical to (3.37).
3.2.4.5 Physical structure of solution. Structure of non-displaced oil
At the instant of water breakthrough (t
) the solution s(x, t
) has the following physical structure

shown in Fig. 3.14:
yellow area I (divided by L) is equal to the saturation of the capillary trapped oil which can
be never displaced;
Figure 3.14: Structure of non-displaced oil
beige area II is the saturation of oil which is non-displaced yet (temporarily), but which is
not trapped;
area III is the saturation of the injected water;
area IV is the saturation of the initial water present in the reservoir.
What is the physical origin of the non-displaced oil from area II? If we consider the system
of porous channels at the microscale (Fig. 3.15) then the oil displacement in each channel will
Figure 3.15: Oil displacement in the model of parallel channels
happen with individual velocity proportional to square of pore radius (according to the Poiseuille
law). We will observe the set of small fronts (menisci) of displacement situated at various distances
from the inlet. The forward menisci are situated in largest pores and they mark the position of
the macroscopic forward displacement front x
f
(t). Behind it, we have non-displaced (temporarily)
oil in narrower channels, in which the resistance to ow is higher. This non-displaced oil is non-
trapped, but simply is delayed due to the medium micro-heterogeneity. This macro-heterogeneity
enters implicitly in the macroscopic model via the structure of the relative permeabilities.
Thus, the Buckley-Leverett model takes into account for the heterogeneity of the medium at
the pore-scale. At the same time, this model considers the macro-homogeneous medium. Thus,
the concept of RF describes only the medium micro-heterogeneity.
3.2.4.6 Eciency of displacement
The surface above the curve s(x) behind the front (shock) corresponds to the volume of non-
displaced oil. So the eciency of displacement depends on the saturation behind the shock s
f
: the
higher s
f
, the higher the eciency is. The eciency may be also characterized by the breakthrough
recovery which is also proportional to s
f
, as this results from Fig. 3.13.
The main parameters which can inuence the ooding eciency are: the viscosity ratio, the
injection velocity (or the total velocity), the form of the RP which inuences the form of the
fractional ow.
1. Eect of viscosity ratio
The viscosity ratio changes the form of the fractional ow as this is shown in Fig. 3.16.
Figure 3.16: Impact of viscosity ratio on fractional ow
The particularity of the two limit cases consists of that the Welge tangent does not exist. So
the solution should be constructed in another way, by applying the procedure of constructing the
continuous solution explained in this chapter.
The case
w
/
oil
<< 1 corresponds to heavy oil or to the injection of gas instead of water.
The saturation prole for this case is shown in Fig. 3.17-a.
The shock does not exist, such that the solution is continuous. The displacement front cor-
responds to the angular point when the derivative of the saturation becomes discontinuous. The
Figure 3.17: Solution of the displacement problem for the injection of non-viscous uid (a) and
highly viscous uid (b)
velocity of this point corresponds to the velocity of the rarefaction wave at s
0
:
U
f
/U = F
_
s
0
_
(3.38)
The eciency of this process is very low, as it corresponds to the minimal possible saturation
s
f
. At the same time the rate of this process is very high, as the derivative (3.38) is maximal at
point s
0
according to Fig. 3.17-a.
The case
w
/
oil
>> 1 corresponds to the displacement of light oil, or to the injection of
viscous solutions of water (polymers). The saturation prole for this case is shown in Fig. 3.17-b.
The displacement is piston-like, all the oil is displaced. The velocity of the shock is obtained from
the Hugoniot condition (2.2.14):
U
f
= U
F(s
inj
) F(s
0
)
s
inj
s
0
(3.39)
The stability condition (3.30) is not used in this case, which is normal, as the tangent line
corresponding to F
(s
f
) does not exist.
2. Independence of the injection velocity
As shown above, the injection velocity is equal to the total velocity U. All the dimensionless
parameters of this process, like s
f
, s
w
, U
f
/U are determined in a unique way by the diagram F(s).
So these parameters are constant in time and do not depend of space coordinate. This means
that the Buckley-Leverett process is invariant with respect to ow velocity. This is a fundamental
property of the horizontal displacement.
3.3 Displacement with gravity
3.3.1 Canonical model of two-phase ow with gravity
3.3.1.1 1D ow equations with gravity
Hypotheses:
Fluids are incompressible; medium is homogeneous; ow is 1D; capillarity is negligible.
Let be the angle between the ow direction and the horizontal plan.
We will analyze independently the ascending and the descending ow. In both cases the axe
x will be oriented to the ow direction, as shown in Fig. 3.18.
Figure 3.18: Regimes of displacement with gravity impact
Due to this the projection of the gravity force g on the axe x will be negative for ascending
ow and positive for the descending case:
g sin ,
_
_
+1, for ascending ow
1, for descending ow
(3.40)
Masse and momentum balance are, from (3.2) and (3.4) :
3.3. DISPLACEMENT WITH GRAVITY 85
s
t
+
V
w
x
= 0 (3.41a)
s
t
+
V
oil
x
= 0 (3.41b)
V
w
=
w
P
x

w
w
, V
oil
=
oil
P
x

oil
oil
(3.41c)
where
oil

Kk
oil
oil
,
w

Kk
w
w
, g sin (3.42)
3.3.1.2 Canonical model
System (3.40) - (3.41) may be reduced to one transport equation for saturation:
s
t
+U
G(s)
x
= 0, G(s) F(s) R(s) (3.43)
where parameter is the gravity number which tends to innity when the gravity force is much
higher than the friction:

gK (
w
oil
) sin
V
oil
(3.44)
Function F(s) is the same fractional ow as (3.12) and (3.14):
F(s)

w
oil
+
w
=
k
w
(s)
k
w
(s) +k
oil
(s)
,

w
oil
(3.45)
Function R(S) is the contribution of the gravity eects to the total fractional ow:
R(s) F(s)k
oil
(s) (3.46)
U = V/ is the total true velocity, while V = V
w
+V
oil
is the total Darcy velocity.
Function R(s) is non-monotonic as presented in Fig. 3.19.
Respectively, the total fractional ow function G(s) has dierent forms depending on the value
of the gravity number and the ow direction. In several situations function G(s) may be non-
monotonic.
Proof:
Figure 3.19: Fractional ow functions
1. Summing up (3.40) we get:
V
x
= 0, V V
w
+V
w
= V (t) (3.47)
We will accept, for the sake of simplicity, that V = const.
2. Summing up (3.41), we obtain:
V = (
oil
+
w
)
P
x
(
w
w
+
w
w
)
or
P
x
=
V
oil
+
w
w
+
w
oil
+
w
3. Let us substitute the last relation into (3.41)a:
V
w
= V F(s) +F(s) (
w
w
+
w
w
)
w
w
= V F(s)
oil
(
w
oil
)
w
+
oil
or
V
w
= V [F(s) R(s)] (3.48)
4. Let us substitute (3.48) into (3.41a):
s
t
+V
G(s)
x
= 0, G(s) F(s) R(s) (3.49)
which is the equation (3.43).
3.3.2 Additional condition at shocks. Continuity w.r.t. initial condi-
tions
3.3.2.1 Insuciency of Hugoniot and stability conditions for non-monotonic frac-
tional ow
In the case when the function F(s) in equation
s
t
+
F(s)
x
= 0
has a maximum or minimum, the Hugoniot conditions and the stability condition (3.30) are
insucient to determine the unique stable solution. The example in Fig. 3.20-a illustrates this
situation where function F(s) is presented (a) and the formal continuous solution of the Riemann
problem with the initial shock given by saturations S
0
and S
inj
(b).
Figure 3.20: Non-monotonic fractional ow (a) and corresponding structure of the formal contin-
uous solution (b)
Two solutions that satisfy both the Hugoniot and stability condition (3.30) may be constructed,
they are shown in Fig. 3.21.
The rst solution has the piston-like shock AB (Fig. 3.21-a) which corresponds to the straight
line AB in diagram F(s). The second solution contains two shocks AC and DB going in the
opposite directions (Fig. 3.21-b). They correspond to the tangent lines AC and DB in diagram
F(s).
The selection of a true solution demands additional conditions to introduce.
Figure 3.21: Two dierent discontinuous solutions which satisfy Hugoniot and stability conditions
3.3.2.2 Conditions of continuity w.r.t. the initial data
Such an additional condition is the continuity with respect to the initial conditions. How can one
apply this condition in practice?
At the initial instant we have only two values of saturation: s
0
situated at x > 0 and s
inj
at
x < 0. These two values generate two families of simple waves having the velocities F
_
s
0
_
> 0
and F
_
s
inj
_
< 0. Respectively, the rst family goes inside the domain x > 0, while the second
one goes outside this domain.
This may be also interpreted in terms of the characteristic lines. At the initial state we have
two families of characteristics dx/dt = F
_
s
0
_
going into the domain x > 0 and dx/dt = F
_
s
inj
_
going outside this domain.
Solution (a) in Fig. 3.21 is evidently non-continuous w.r.t. to these initial conditions, as the
saturation S
inj
propagates at positive velocity (equal to the shock velocity) at any time instant
including the initial one.
Due to this, the true solution is (b) in Fig. 3.21.
3.3.2.3 Non necessity of the counter-current shocks
The appearance of the shocks propagating in the opposite directions is not necessary when we have
the non-monotonic function F(s). The following example shows this. Function F(s) is shown in
Fig. 3.22-a. The formal continuous solution is 3.22-b.
Two dierent solutions that satisfy both the Hugoniot and stability condition (3.30) may be
constructed, they are shown in Fig. 3.23.
Solution (a) corresponds to the shock AC on diagram Fig. 3.22-a, while solution (b) has two
Figure 3.22: Non-monotonic fractional ow (a) and corresponding structure of the formal contin-
uous solution (b)
Figure 3.23: Two dierent discontinuous solutions which satisfy Hugoniot and stability conditions
shocks going in the opposite directions. One of them corresponds to the tangent line AD in Fig.
3.22-a, while the straight line corresponding to the second shock MB is not presented as the
saturation of point M is not clearly determined.
Let us apply the condition of continuity w.r.t. the initial data. At the initial state we have two
families of simples waves which have transport velocities F
_
s
0
_
> 0 and F
_
s
inj
_
> 0. Obviously
the solution (a) in Fig. 3.23 is continuous w.r.t. to these initial conditions, whereas solution (b)
is not, as the saturation S
inj
is transported at negative velocity.
Another construction consisting of two shocks AD and BE gives a non-unique solution as
shock BE is faster than AD.
Thus the true solution is (a) in Fig. 3.23. As seen, any reverse ow does not appear despite
the non-monotony of the function F(s).
3.3.3 Various regimes and solutions
3.3.3.1 Descending ow
Figure 3.24: Fractional ow for
descending displacement
Function G(s) has the form:
G(s) F(s) +R(s) (3.50)
For small , function G(s) is close to F(s), therefore the
structure of the solution is similar to that described in section
3.2. For large , function G(s) becomes non-monotonic G(s)
as shown in Fig. 3.24.
Points A and C correspond to the initial and injection sat-
urations respectively.
According to the graphical technique described in part
3.2.3.6, the Welge tangent line AB coming from the initial point
A determines a shock propagating to the positive direction (i.e. descending) which relates the ini-
tial saturation s
0
before it and the saturation s
f
behind the shock. At point M the derivative of
function G(s) is zero, hence this point remains immobile.
The fragment MC is characterized by the negative transport velocities, which means the
appearance of a counter-ow. However this counter-ow is not realized as it will corresponds to
ascending ow which should be described by another function G(s). Due to this the solution in
this zone is the second shock which related the injection saturation (point C) and the saturation
of the dead point M.
The solution has the form shown in Fig. 3.25.
Figure 3.25: Solution in the case of descending ow
3.3.3.2 Ascending ow
Function G(s) has the form:
G(s) F(s) R(s) (3.51)
Figure 3.26: Fractional ow for ascending displacement
For small , function G(s) F(s). For large , the curve G(s) displaces to the left (Fig.
3.26-a), then becomes a curve which has no Welge tangent (Fig. 3.26-b), and nally transforms
into a non-monotonic function with a negative part (Fig. 3.26-c).
It is possible to show that the solution does not exist when function G(s) becomes non-
monotonic. For monotonic case, the solution has a classical shock determined by tangent line
AB.
3.4. DISPLACEMENT BY IMMISCIBLE SLUGS 93
3.4 Displacement by immiscible slugs
In engineering the permanent injection of a phase in reservoir is used only in the case of water-
ooding. If all other cases when various EOR techniques are applied the active uid is injected
in the form of a slug of nite volume. The major part of the EOR techniques cannot be however
studied in terms of the two-phase immiscible model, due to the necessity to take into account the
dissolution of the injected chemical in oil and water, except several techniques like WAR (water
alternated gas) when the displacement of oil is performed by alternating slugs of gas and water.
In the rst approximation it is possible to neglect the dissolution eects of gas in oil and analyze
only the mechanical eect of this technique. Other examples of the immiscible slug motion are
observed in the case of underground gas storage in aquifers, which is largely governed by gravity
force.
3.4.1 Problem of slug motion
3.4.1.1 Problem setting
Within the framework of the WAG technology (water alternated gas) we consider the displacement
of oil by a slug of dense gas which is pushed on by water. The injection of water is permanent
in time at a constant ow rate. The initial state of the system is presented in Fig. 3.27-a. The
gas saturation (s
g
) is 1 within the slug. A low but non-zero initial gas saturation exists in all
the reservoir and is constant. We assume that the physical properties (densities, viscosities,) and
hydrodynamic properties (RP, PC) of water and oil are identical. The liquid/gas viscosity ratio
is not too high ( 10).
Due to the equivalent properties of water and oil they can be considered as the same liquid
phase. So the problem is pseudo two-phase.
The displacement is horizontal. The total velocity is given. The reservoir is homogeneous, the
a b
Figure 3.27: Oil displacement by a slug of gas (a); Fractional ow for gas (b)
capillary pressure is zero. We accept the form of the factional ow for gas which is shown in Fig.
3.27-b. This curve may be obtained, for instance, by using
g
/
oil
= 0.1 and the following
relative permeabilities:
k
g
=
_
_
_
s
g
s
g
1 s
g
_
3
, s
g
> s
g
,
0, s
g
s
g
, k
oil
=
_
_
_
s
oil
s
oil
1 s
oil
_
2
, s
oil
> s
oil
,
0, s
oil
s
oil
Our objective is to understand the qualitative evolution in time of the gas saturation as the
function of x.
3.4.1.2 Separation of back and forward processes
We can split the process onto two sub-processes happening at the back and forward sides of the
gas slug:
process I - the displacement of liquid by gas before the slug;
process II - the displacement of gas by liquid behind the slug.
The fractional ow for the system gas-liquid is shown in Fig. 3.27-b.
According to the technique we developed in previous chapters, we described the displacement
of phase oil by phase w in terms of the saturation of the displacing phase w and the fractional ow
of the same displacing phase w. So, for process I, it is better to use the function F
g
(s
g
), while for
process II function F
liq
(s
liq
) is preferable. This function is easy to construct on the same plot, as
Figure 3.28: Superposition of two fractional ow functions on the same plot
F
liq
= 1 F
g
and s
liq
= 1 s
g
. So we can use the same diagram F s for both the sub-processes,
as shown in Fig. 3.28. Indeed, the origin of the diagram (s
liq
, F
liq
) = (0, 0) corresponds to the
upper right-hand corner in diagram Fig. 3.28: (s
g
, F
g
) = (1, 1). Then all the constructions may
be performed within the same diagram.
3.4.2 Solution of the problem. Scenarios of evolution
3.4.2.1 Solution for the forward part
Process I is that of gas injection in point x = l at the injection saturation s
inj
= 1 and at the initial
gas saturation s
0
. In the diagram F(s) we mark the initial point (A) and construct the Welge
tangent line (AB) from this point, as shown in Fig. 3.29-a. This tangent line gives the complete
characterization to the process: it proves the existence of the forward shock I and determines its
parameters: the saturation behind the shock s
I
f
, and the dimensionless shock velocity U
f
/U as
the tangent of angle B As
I
f
. This shock relates the saturations s
0
and s
I
f
.
So the gas saturation within the forward part of the process will have the form shown in Fig.
3.29-b.
Figure 3.29: Construction of the solution for the forward process
3.4.2.2 Solution for the back part
The back process II is the injection of liquid, at point x = 0, into the reservoir initially occupied
by gas. The initial liquid saturation is equal to 0, while the injection liquid saturation is obviously
s
inj
liq
= 1 s
0
g
. Therefore we can eliminate the sub-domain of saturations higher than 1 s
0
g
which
cannot be reached. In the diagram F(s) Fig. 3.30-a we construct next the second Welge tangent
line (the red straight-line ) from the initial point which proves the existence of the back shock II.
Figure 3.30: Construction of the solution for the back process
The parameters of this shock are: the saturation behind the shock s
II
liq,f
, and the dimensionless
shock velocity U
f
/U as the tangent of the red line with respect to the upper horizontal axis.
As seen shock II relates the gas saturation 1 and s
II
f
, its velocity is positive, so this shock goes
to the same direction as the forward shock.
The solution at the back part will have the form presented in Fig. 3.30-b in terms of gas
saturation.
3.4.2.3 Matching two solutions
Combining two parts shown in Fig. 3.29-b and 3.30-b, we obtain the matched overall solution
shown in Fig. 3.31.
Figure 3.31: Matched solution of the overall problem of displacement by a slug
The dimensions of this conguration will be so that the surface below the overall saturation
curve would remain invariable, which means the conservation of the total mass of the gas slug. This
property will be satised automatically, as the dierential equation for gas saturation represents
the mass conservation law.
3.4.2.4 Evolution in time - stage 1: Independent development of the forward and
back parts
To understand how will be the scenario of evolution, it is necessary to compare the shock velocities.
The comparison of two tangent lines in Fig. 3.30-a shows that the forward shock is faster than the
back one. Then the slug will become longer with time. Consecutively its height should decrease,
otherwise the total gas mass will be not conserved. The qualitative evolution is presented in Fig.
3.32 for two time instants.
Figure 3.32: Evolution of the slug at the beginning of the process
3.4.2.5 Evolution in time - stage 2: the back shock crosses the initial position of the
forward shock
Starting from the instant when the back shock crosses the initial position of the forward shock the
height of the saturation prole will decrease, as shown in Fig. 3.33. However such an evolution is
impossible.
Figure 3.33: Formal evolution of the solution, physically prohibited
Indeed, at large time the surface between two shocks in Fig. 3.33 will tend to a rectangle which
will extend longitudinally while keeping the constant height. This means the non-conservation of
the total gas mass. Due to this, the solution on this stage will be qualitatively dierent.
To construct the right solution, it is sucient to note that when the gas saturation before the
shock II becomes lower than 1, then this shock will be described by a tangent line other than
the initial red line II in diagram Fig. 3.31. This will be the tangent line variable in time and
displacing to the left, as shown in Fig. 3.34.
Figure 3.34: Construction of the solution with diagram F s
Respectively the slop of this line will increase, and the saturation behind the shock (large red
points) will increase too. So the shock II begins to accelerate and even becomes faster than the
shock I. The corresponding scenario is shown in Fig. 3.35 for two time instants.
Figure 3.35: True solution for stage 2
3.4.2.6 Evolution - stage 3: the back shock disappears
The consecutive scenario depends on the structure of the diagram F s. It is expected that the
back shock, being faster, will catch up with the forward shock. Starting from this instant the only
one shock will be present. The behavior of this new shock is non-trivial, in particular its velocity
sharply decreases.
First of all, according to the logics of Fig. 3.35, the saturation before shock II (point M in
Fig. 3.36) is always higher than the saturation behind the shock I (point N).
Due to this, point M in the lower plot in Fig. 3.36 will never descend below point N. At
Figure 3.36: Just before collision of two shocks
any point M situated above N, the tangent line MK exists with point K situated below N. So,
M will remain above N, while K will be below N. This proves: i) the permanent existence of
the back shock, and ii) the fact that the saturation s
K
behind the back shock is lower than the
saturation s
N
s
I
f
behind the forward shock.
When both the shocks collide, the structure of the saturation eld in the vicinity of the forward
shock is shown in Fig. 3.37.
Figure 3.37: Solution when both shocks collide
(it is probable that points M and N will coincide).
Due to this the upper part KM of the shock disappears (the mass of gas located along any line
is zero) and the consecutive evolution will happen with a unique shock. The saturation behind
this shock is determined by point K, while the saturation before it is s
0
. So this new shock will
be determined by the straight line KA in Fig. 3.38.
Figure 3.38: Parameters of the nal shock
This line KA is not tangent to curve F(s), but this is admissible, as the upper part of the
diagram above K cannot be longer reached.
As seen, the velocity of the new shock is lower than the velocity of the forward shock I existed
at the stages 1 and 2 and is of the same order than the velocity of the shock II existed on stage
1. The solution will have the form shown in Fig. 3.39.
Figure 3.39: Solution after shock collision
According to the diagram Fig. 3.38, the shock velocity and the shock saturation s
K
will remain
invariable in time. This means, in accordance with mass conservation, that the behavior of gas
saturation becomes sharper and sharper in the vicinity of the shock, and more and more smooth
far from it.
3.5 Segregation and macro-bubble rising in porous media
The segregation process between two immiscible uids is the spontaneous separation of two phases
having dierent densities and the consecutive uplift of the light phase and the descent of the heavy
uid to the bottom. It is controlled only by the gravity with no injecting something in reservoir.
This means that the total ow velocity U, which is equal to the injection velocity as this was
shown in (3.17), is zero.
3.5.1 Segregation process
3.5.1.1 Canonical 1D model
Let a semi-innite light uid (gas) be situated below the semi-nite heavy uid (liquid). The
initial interface is horizontal. Due to the gravity force, gas will lift up by producing the counter-
current ow of upper liquid. The general process is 2D at minimum, but it can be analyzed in the
average across the horizontal sections. Such an average process is 1D along the vertical axe. We
will analyze it.
If the process is only controlled by the gravity force (a free lift-up of the light liquid situated
under the heavy liquid) and U = 0, then we obtain from (3.43) the following relation for the term
U
G(s)
x
:
U
G(s)
x
= U
F
x
+U
R
x
= U
gK sin (
w
g
)
w
U
R
x
=
R
x
,
gK sin (
w
g
)
w
It is always possible to change the time scale or the space scale in such a way that coecient
will disappear. Thus the ow model becomes:
s
t
+
R(s)
x
= 0, R(s) F(s)k
w
(s) (3.52)
where s is the saturation of lighter uid (gas).
This equation is known as the uid segregation model. Function R(s) has the shape presented
in Fig. 3.40.
3.5. SEGREGATION AND MACRO-BUBBLE RISING IN POROUS MEDIA 103
Figure 3.40: Fractional ow for segregation process
3.5.1.2 Classical segregation problem
The segregation problem is described by the general model (3.52) with a Riemann condition:
s
t
+
R(s)
x
= 0, (3.53a)
s (x, 0) =
_
_
s
A
, x 0
s
B
, x > 0
(3.53b)
where s
A
> s
B
.
3.5.1.3 Solution of the segregation problem
. . .
3.5.2 Gas macro-bubble rising in liquid
3.5.2.1 Process description
Another problem is related to the ascension of xed volumes of gas through a heavier liquid.
This case is similar to the problems of displacement by slugs, but is described by the segregation
equation (3.53) with non-monotonic function R(s). .
The example of such processes is related to the underground storage of gases. For instance,
this concerns the injection of H
2
or CO
2
, or CH
4
in an aquifer. For the case of CO
2
which is
chemically reactive, one would like to avoid the probable chemical percolation of the reservoir
cover caused by the contact with CO
2
. Due to this CO
2
is injected at the bottom. One of the
problem consists of controlling the CO
2
rising in order to localize it and avoid its contact with
the reservoir cover.
For H
2
and CH
4
, in contrast, the objective is to concentrate them in the upper part of the
reservoir, below the water table. The injection in the upper part is however unfavorable as it leads
to the lateral spreading of very light H
2
along the cover, which can cause non-controlling lacks of
H
2
. So H
2
is also injected at the bottom which leads to rising of the macro-scale gas bubble in
water.
The initial bubble in problem (3.48) is then the bubble of H
2
or CO
2
already injected. We
will analyze now what will happen after this bubble has been already injected.
The gravity will deform the bubble, in particular the bubble will extend in length. If it becomes
too long and narrow then it can be dispersed onto a set of small bubbles, which will mean their
immobilization (a disconnected phase in porous medium remains immobile). Mathematically, the
moment of fragmentation corresponds to the instant when one reaches the percolation threshold
on relative permeability curves.
The longer is the bubble trajectory, the higher the probability of its fragmentation is. So the
analysis of this process could provide the minimal depth of injection which ensure the bubble
fragmentation before reaching the reservoir cover.
The initial state is specied by the following condition:
s (x, 0) =
_
_
s
0
, x x
a
1, x
a
< x x
b
s
0
, x
b
< x
(3.54)
where s
0
is the initial gas saturation in the aquifer; x
a
and x
b
are the lower and upper limits of
the initial gas bubble.
3.5.2.2 Scenarios of the bubble motion
It is possible to show that the evolution of the process passes through the following stages:
1 The forward front splits onto two shocks; one of them (shock I) lifts up, whereas the second
3.5. SEGREGATION AND MACRO-BUBBLE RISING IN POROUS MEDIA 105
one (II) goes down. The back shock (III) is immobile. This process is similar to a classic
segregation in an innite uid.
2 The backward shock II crosses the back shock III. This gives rise to a new shock IV which
begins to move up. So two shocks I and IV lift up.
3 The back shock IV may be slower than the forward shock I. In this case the bubble between
shocks I and IV becomes more and more elongated and thin, until the saturation in bubble reaches
the percolation threshold.
4 The back shock IV may be faster than the forward shock I. In this case shock IV will cross
the shock I. Starting from this instant,

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Multiphase ow in porous media

is called the percolation threshold.

for porous media can be calculated analytically for some

= {an arbitrary pore does not belong to the innite cluster} ,

repeated 1 times, because the number of neighboring pores for the

is called the percolation threshold. This value

the probability Y () tends to zero. Then

, 0) and (1, 1), and the same derivative at = 1.

0.15 0.3 (1.15)

Then for the two-phase case, relation (2.8) gives:

, where is the porosity, and

is the medium porosity.

(s). Then the distance of transport

(s) t. For a xed time t, the distance of transport is then proportional to

Or, for our case when s

(s)t. So the integral GBCE is easy to calculate for the inverse

. This is the Hugoniot

of the water breakthrough into production

) dx. where the integral represents the

. The area ABE is easy calculated

. Then (*) becomes:

(1) = 0, then we obtain (3.37).

) the solution s(x, t

) has the following physical structure

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