City Research Online

Abstract

Modelling fluid flow in rock porous media is a challenging physical problem. Simplified macroscopic flow models, such as the well-known Darcy's law, fail to predict accurately the pressure drop because many flow parameters are not considered while simplifications are made for the multi-scale structure of the rocks. In order to improve the physical understanding for such flows and the accuracy of existent models, there is a need for realistic geometries to be investigated. The present work describes initially single-phase flow simulations performed on numerical grids obtained from reconstruction of 2D images of rock porous media found in the open literature using ANSA®. The results in terms of preferential paths and tortuosity are compared with experiments. Following, multiphase flow models have been utilised focusing on the capturing of the liquid-gas interface motion. It is concluded that for such complex porous rock problems, the multi-scale flow development is grid dependent.

Publication Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Publisher Keywords:	Pore-scale modelling, openFOAM, Hydraulic conductivity, Navier-Stokes equations, Volume of Fluid
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering

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