Disorder characterization of porous media and its effect on fluid displacement

Zhongzheng Wang, Kapil Chauhan, Jean-Michel Pereira, and Yixiang Gan
Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 034305 – Published 29 March 2019

Abstract

We investigate the effects of topological disorder and wettability on fluid displacement in porous media. A modified disorder index Iv is proposed to characterize the disorder of porous media. By changing Iv, different displacement patterns (stable displacement and fingering) under the same flow condition and fluid property are obtained. We analytically demonstrate how increase in disorder promotes fingering due to uneven distribution of local capillary pressure. It is shown that the displacement efficiency for different wettability conditions and disorder well correlates with the distribution of local capillary pressure. A power-law relation between fluid-fluid interfacial length and saturation of invading fluid is proposed by taking geometry into account, where the parameters in power-law relation can be predicted by the capillary index, Ic, unifying the effects of topological disorder and wettability.

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  • Received 19 December 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.4.034305

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Polymers & Soft MatterFluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Zhongzheng Wang1,2, Kapil Chauhan1, Jean-Michel Pereira2, and Yixiang Gan1,*

  • 1School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
  • 2Laboratoire Navier, UMR 8205, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, IFSTTAR, CNRS, UPE, France

  • *yixiaing.gan@sydney.edu.au

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Vol. 4, Iss. 3 — March 2019

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