Research Areas

Pore-Scale Modeling of Multi-Phase Flow

A multi-phase lattice-Boltzmann model was used to simulate computed microtomographic image
data of air-water drainage and imbibition experiments in a glass bead porous system. The
geometry of the porous medium as obtained from the experimental images was used to define
the pore space geometry in the simulations. Both pressure and flux boundary conditions were
investigated with the simulations. Results showed that, overall there was a good match between
measured and simulated capillary pressure - saturation data, however there were some
differences at low saturation values. Comparison of observed and simulated phase distributions
within the pores showed remarkable correspondence for drainage over the entire simulated
saturation range and for imbibition at high saturation values. At low saturation during imbibition,
the phase distribution comparison was most likely affected by differences in the boundary
conditions between the experiments and the simulations. Comparison of interfacial area - saturation
curves also showed a close match for drainage, whereas the simulated imbibition curves
were higher than observed curves by a factor of approximately 3.5. Furthermore,
the comparison between observed and simulated interfacial area - saturation curves showed
that imbibition curves were lower than drainage curves for the observed data, whereas in the
simulations imbibition was higher than drainage. This discrepancy is likely due to simplifying
assumptions in the simulations, which do not fully capture the physics of the experimental
system during imbibition.