SPE Journal
Volume 17,
Number 4,
December 2012,
pp. 1131-1141
Summary
We simulate flow and transport directly onto pore-space images obtained from
a microcomputed-tomography (microCT) scan of rock cores. An efficient Stokes
solver is used to simulate low-Reynolds-number flows. The flow simulator uses a
finite-difference method along with a standard predictor/corrector procedure to
decouple pressure and velocity. An algebraic multigrid technique solves the
linear systems of equations. We then predict permeability, and the results are
compared with lattice-Boltzmann-method (LBM) numerical results and available
experimental data.
For solute transport, we apply a streamline-based algorithm that is similar
to the Pollock algorithm common in field-scale reservoir simulation, but which
uses a novel semianalytic formulation near solid boundaries to capture, with
subgrid resolution, the variation in velocity near the grains. A random-walk
method accounts for molecular diffusion. The streamline-based algorithm is
validated by comparison with published results for Taylor-Aris dispersion in a
single capillary with a square cross section. We then predict accurately the
available experimental data in the literature for the longitudinal dispersion
coefficient for a range of Péclet numbers (10–2 to 106).
We introduce a characteristic length on the basis of the ratio of volume to
pore/grain surface area that can be used for consolidated porous media to
calculate the Péclet number.
© 2012. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
3 March 2011
- Meeting paper published:
21 September 2010
- Revised manuscript received:
16 March 2012
- Manuscript approved:
20 March 2012
- Published online:
12 September 2012
- Version of record:
7 December 2012
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