Direct fluid flow simulation at pore scale with regularized hydrodynamic equations

Abstract

Abstract Laboratory analysis of rock samples (core material) is one of the main tools used in an analysis of oil and gas field development and methods to enhance oil recovery. A number of drawbacks are intrinsic to the laboratory techniques, among which we note the practical impossibility of carrying out parametric studies on one sample, the impossibility (and / or high cost) of taking into account reservoir conditions, and the impossibility of analyzing non-cemented rocks (sludge). With the development of computational capabilities and computed tomography methods, the “digital rock physics” technology, which consists in direct simulation of physical processes in a rock sample with resolved pore space geometry, is gaining popularity today. This technology complements the traditional laboratory studies and compensates for a number of their shortcomings. The presented work is devoted to the direct simulation of fluid flow within the scope of the digital rock physics. For simulation regularized (according to quasi-hydrodynamic technique) hydrodynamic equations are used. Both single-phase single-component flows and two-phase two-component flows, taking into account interfacial tension, are discussed. The results of simulations of fluid flows both in model domains and in domains corresponding to the pore space of real rocks are presented.