Pore-scale investigation on the effect of icing on relative permeability of two-phase immiscible fluids

Abstract

In this study, the flow behavior and relative permeability (kr) curve of the immiscible two-phase flow accompanied by icing in a horizontal channel were studied using the lattice Boltzmann method-phase field method (LBM-PFM) coupling model at the pore-scale. A novel LBM-PFM coupled model is proposed and tested by comparison with analytical and experimental results, and good agreement is achieved in general. Then, the model is used for simulating two-phase fluids (brine water–oil) flow during icing. In addition, the effects of initial phase distribution, capillary number, and heat flux are numerically discussed. The results show that, the distribution characteristics of the relative permeability curves of the immiscible fluids during the crystallization process are determined by the initial phase distribution. The Ca number is a positive correlation function of kr, while the kr curve is not sensitive to the change of heat flux.