A PERMEABILITY MODEL FOR WATER–GAS PHASE FLOW IN FRACTAL FRACTURE NETWORKS

Abstract

Flow mechanism of water–gas phase is of significant importance to accurately understand and predict the fluid flow behavior in many fields, such as water and oil exploration, hot dry rock development and optimization of fuel cells. In this work, a novel relative permeability (RP) model for two-phase flow in fracture networks is proposed based on the fractal theory. The proposed model is expressed as a nonlinear function of saturation of water and gas with no empirical parameter. A stronger interference between water and gas phases than that of the X-model is found. The proposed model may provide a better understanding of the fundamental mechanism of water–gas phase flow in fracture network.