Bulletin of the American Physical Society
67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics
Volume 59, Number 20
Sunday–Tuesday, November 23–25, 2014; San Francisco, California
Session D3: Porous Media Flows II |
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Chair: Christopher MacMinn, Oxford University Room: 3004 |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 2:15PM - 2:28PM |
D3.00001: Self-similarity in porous convection Anja Slim In geological carbon storage, the carbon dioxide injected into a saline formation is less dense than the resident brine and floats above it. However it is also slightly soluble in brine and progressively dissolves. Brine with dissolved CO$_2$ is slightly denser than ``pure" brine and there is the potential for convective overturning. The form of this convection changes as more and more CO$_2$ dissolves, but eventually a surprising regime is reached in which the rate at which CO$_2$ dissolves is constant. In this regime, we find that there is no characteristic length-scale and the horizontally averaged concentration field is self-similar. I will describe features of this regime and develop a system of almost-complete effective equations that describe its evolution. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 2:28PM - 2:41PM |
D3.00002: Large poroelastic deformation of a soft material Christopher W. MacMinn, Eric R. Dufresne, John S. Wettlaufer Flow through a porous material will drive mechanical deformation when the fluid pressure becomes comparable to the stiffness of the solid skeleton. This has applications ranging from hydraulic fracture for recovery of shale gas, where fluid is injected at high pressure, to the mechanics of biological cells and tissues, where the solid skeleton is very soft. The traditional linear theory of poroelasticity captures this fluid-solid coupling by combining Darcy's law with linear elasticity. However, linear elasticity is only volume-conservative to first order in the strain, which can become problematic when damage, plasticity, or extreme softness lead to large deformations. Here, we compare the predictions of linear poroelasticity with those of a large-deformation framework in the context of two model problems. We show that errors in volume conservation are compounded and amplified by coupling with the fluid flow, and can become important even when the deformation is small. We also illustrate these results with a laboratory experiment. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 2:41PM - 2:54PM |
D3.00003: Poroelastic packing and gravity currents Duncan Hewitt, Japinder Nijjer, Jerome Neufeld The flow of fluid through a poroelastic medium leads to deformation of the medium. We study flow in deformable media in two different contexts, in both cases undertaking laboratory experiments using small deformable hydrogel spheres. First, we present experimental results of vertical planar flow through a deformable medium driven by an imposed pressure difference. Even this simple system exhibits a complex coupling of flow and deformation. The flow-induced compaction of the medium is non-uniform with depth, and the mass flux measured in a series of experiments for different applied pressure exhibits hysteresis. We compare experimental measurements with the predictions of a simple theoretical model. Second, we consider the gravity-driven flow of fluid injected into a poroelastic medium, where flow-induced deformation leads to uplift of the surface of the medium. In the context of geological CO$_2$ sequestration, uplift of the surface has been observed above CO$_2$ injection sites. We develop a shallow-layer theory which describes both the flow of the injected current and the associated uplift of the surface of the medium. We also compare measurements from laboratory experiments of injection into a poroelastic medium with predictions from the theoretical model. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 2:54PM - 3:07PM |
D3.00004: Injection and leakage of fluids in confined porous media Sam Pegler, Herbert Huppert, Jerome Neufeld We present a theoretical and experimental study of viscous gravity currents injected into porous media confined vertically by horizontal impermeable boundaries and saturated by a fluid of different density and viscosity. With two-dimensional flow injected at a constant volumetric rate, the pressure gradient introduced by the injection shapes the interface towards a concave similarity solution in which gravity is negligible and the interface grows in proportion to time. Data from a new series of laboratory experiments confirm our theoretical predictions over a range of viscosity ratios. We proceed to consider situations in which the current can leak through a localized ``fracture,'' at a rate which depends both on the gravitational head of the current below the fracture and the pressure introduced by injection. Confinement constrains the vertical growth of the current and implies a maximum possible rate of leakage. Consequently, two different flow regimes can arise, depending on whether the injection rate exceeds that maximum. If it does, then the proportion of injected fluid retained in the medium can be orders of magnitude greater than has been proposed previously from studies of unconfined aquifers with otherwise identical flow properties. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 3:07PM - 3:20PM |
D3.00005: Wettability control on fluid-fluid displacements in patterned microfluidics and porous media Ruben Juanes, Mathias Trojer, Benzhong Zhao While it is well known that the wetting properties are critical in two-phase flows in porous media, the effect of wettability on fluid displacement continues to challenge our microscopic and macroscopic descriptions. Here we study this problem experimentally, starting with the classic experiment of two-phase flow in a capillary tube. We image the shape of the meniscus and measure the associated capillary pressure for a wide range of capillary numbers. We synthesize new observations on the dependence of the dynamic capillary pressure on wetting properties (contact angle) and flow conditions (viscosity contrast and capillary number). We then conduct experiments on a planar microfluidic device patterned with vertical posts. We track the evolution of the fluid-fluid interface and elucidate the impact of wetting on the cooperative nature of fluid displacement during pore invasion events. We use the insights gained from the capillary tube and patterned microfluidics experiments to elucidate the effect of wetting properties on viscous fingering and capillary fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell filled with glass beads, where we observe a contact-angle-dependent stabilizing behavior for the emerging flow instabilities, as the system transitions from drainage to imbibition. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 3:20PM - 3:33PM |
D3.00006: The transient spreading flow history and liquid distribution within porous medium: a wettability study Bojan Markicevic The interpretation of the capillary pressure at the fluid free interface as fluid potential stipulates that the wetting liquid potential is negative, and flow into porous medium is spontaneous. On the other hand, for a non-wetting flow to take place, an external force needs to be applied. Porous media are heterogeneous materials, which causes the local differences in the liquid potential and irregular liquid free interface irrespective of liquid/solid wettability. However, it is not only the capillary force that causes instabilities; even for a neutral liquid, irregularities are present due to the volumetric factor of pores of different sizes. In the present study, a neutral fluid is used as a referent value, and changes of the free interface shape for gradually increasing wetting and non-wetting interactions are determined numerically. It is shown that the interface instability is higher for the non-wetting liquid and the interface thickness is an asymmetric function of wetting angle with a minimum for the neutral fluid. Clearly, this asymmetry is influenced by pore volume, local flow resistance and capillary pressure, where for the wetting fluid, the fully saturated porous medium emerges earlier compared to its non-wetting counterpart. All three contributions lump into the changes in the flow rate, where it has been shown that by varying the external force onto the system, the interface instability can be reverted and interface stabilizes as the flow rate -- and capillary number -- increases. This implies that for the media whose wettability is altered, the external pressure needs to be changed in order to maintain the similar liquid distribution. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 3:33PM - 3:46PM |
D3.00007: Suppression of the Saffman-Taylor instability through injection of a finite slug of polymer Timothy H. Beeson-Jones, Andrew W. Woods During secondary oil recovery, relatively mobile water can channel through oil owing to the Saffman-Taylor instability. Injection of a finite slug of polymer solution from a central well prior to the water flood suppresses the growth of the instability by reducing the adverse mobility ratio at the leading interface. A linear stability analysis of an axisymmetric base state identifies how perturbations on the leading and trailing interfaces become coupled. It also reveals the dependence of the long-time algebraic growth of each mode on the mobility ratios across the two interfaces. The viscosity of the polymer solution which minimizes the growth rate of the instability is identified, and the impact of different slug sizes on this growth is described. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 3:46PM - 3:59PM |
D3.00008: Direct Numerical Simulation of pore scale flow and reactive transport of CO$_{2}$ in saline aquifers Mohammad Alizadeh Nomeli, Amir Riaz A long-term geochemical modeling of subsurface CO$_{2}$ storage is carried out in a single fracture to investigate its impact on CO$_{2}$ transport and storage capacity. We model the fracture by considering flow of CO$_{2}$ between finite plates. CO$_{2}$ is initially dissolved in the brine and then precipitates during the geochemical reactions between H$_{2}$O-CO$_{2}$ and minerals. We study the physics and the critical time of blockage for a fracture to interpret the results. We employ direct numerical simulation tools and algorithms to simulate incompressible flow along with necessary transport equations that capture the kinetics of relevant chemical reactions. The numerical model is based on a finite difference method using a sequential non-iterative approach. It is found that mineral precipitation has an important effect on reservoir porosity and permeability. The fracture ceases to be a fluid channel because of the precipitation of minerals. In addition, using parameter analysis we also determine the effect of various mineral precipitates on porosity of fractures. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 23, 2014 3:59PM - 4:12PM |
D3.00009: Fluid-driven fracture of elastic reservoirs followed by viscous backflow Ching-Yao Lai, Zhong Zheng, Emilie Dressaire, Howard Stone We developed a laboratory scale experiment to study the physical mechanisms of fluid driven fracture and viscous backflow from elastic reservoirs. When pressurized fluid was injected into a gelatin reservoir, which is elastic but brittle, the fracture grows along an almost continuous plane and forms a fluid-filled disc-like shape. Once the injected fluid is exposed to the atmospheric pressure, the elastic relaxation of the reservoir drives the fluid flows backwards towards the original source. We study the back flow process, e.g. volume recovered as a function of time, as a function of experimental parameters such as injection volume, reservoir elasticity, and fluid viscosity. Scaling arguments are provided to explain the experimental results, which provide insights into the underlying physics of hydraulic fracturing. [Preview Abstract] |
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