Miscible flow through porous media

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Miscible flow through porous media
Authors: Booth, Richard J. S.
Committee Members: Ockendon, John R.; Farmer, Chris L.
Summary: This thesis is concerned with the modelling of miscible fluid flow through porous media, with the intended application being the displacement of oil from a reservoir by a solvent with which the oil is miscible. The primary difficulty that we encounter with such modelling is the existence of a fingering instability that arises from the viscosity and the density differences between the oil and solvent. We take as our basic model the Peaceman model, which we derive from first principles as the combination of Darcy’s law with the mass transport of solvent by advection and hydrodynamic dispersion. In the oil industry, advection is usually dominant, so that the Péclet number, Pe, is large. We begin by neglecting the effect of density differences between the two fluids and concentrate only on the viscous fingering instability. A stability analysis and numerical simulations are used to show that the wavelength of the instability is proportional to Pe^−1/2, and hence that a large number of fingers will be formed. We next apply homogenisation theory to investigate the evolution of the average concentration of solvent when the mean flow is one-dimensional, and discuss the rationale behind the Koval model. We then attempt to explain why the mixing zone in which fingering is present grows at the observed rate, which is different from that predicted by a naive version of the Koval model. We associate the shocks that appear in our homogenised model with the tips and roots of the fingers, the tip-regions being modelled by Saffman-Taylor finger solutions. We then extend our model to consider flow through porous media that are heterogeneous at the macroscopic scale, and where the mean flow is not one dimensional. We compare our model with that of Todd & Longstaff and also models for immiscible flow through porous media. Finally, we extend our work to consider miscible displacements in which both density and viscosity differences between the two fluids are relevant.
URL: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.489413
Database: OpenDissertations
FullText Text:
  Availability: 0
Header DbId: ddu
DbLabel: OpenDissertations
An: ddu.oai.ethos.bl.uk.489413
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: Dissertation/ Thesis
PubTypeId: dissertation
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Miscible flow through porous media
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Booth%2C+Richard+J%2E+S%2E%22">Booth, Richard J. S.</searchLink>
– Name: Author
  Label: Committee Members
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Ockendon%2C+John+R%2E%22">Ockendon, John R.</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Farmer%2C+Chris+L%2E%22">Farmer, Chris L.</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Summary
  Group: Ab
  Data: This thesis is concerned with the modelling of miscible fluid flow through porous media, with the intended application being the displacement of oil from a reservoir by a solvent with which the oil is miscible. The primary difficulty that we encounter with such modelling is the existence of a fingering instability that arises from the viscosity and the density differences between the oil and solvent. We take as our basic model the Peaceman model, which we derive from first principles as the combination of Darcy’s law with the mass transport of solvent by advection and hydrodynamic dispersion. In the oil industry, advection is usually dominant, so that the Péclet number, Pe, is large. We begin by neglecting the effect of density differences between the two fluids and concentrate only on the viscous fingering instability. A stability analysis and numerical simulations are used to show that the wavelength of the instability is proportional to Pe^−1/2, and hence that a large number of fingers will be formed. We next apply homogenisation theory to investigate the evolution of the average concentration of solvent when the mean flow is one-dimensional, and discuss the rationale behind the Koval model. We then attempt to explain why the mixing zone in which fingering is present grows at the observed rate, which is different from that predicted by a naive version of the Koval model. We associate the shocks that appear in our homogenised model with the tips and roots of the fingers, the tip-regions being modelled by Saffman-Taylor finger solutions. We then extend our model to consider flow through porous media that are heterogeneous at the macroscopic scale, and where the mean flow is not one dimensional. We compare our model with that of Todd & Longstaff and also models for immiscible flow through porous media. Finally, we extend our work to consider miscible displacements in which both density and viscosity differences between the two fluids are relevant.
– Name: URL
  Label: URL
  Group: URL
  Data: <link linkTarget="URL" linkTerm="https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.489413" linkWindow="_blank">https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.489413</link>
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ddu&AN=ddu.oai.ethos.bl.uk.489413
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: 532.05
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Fluid mechanics (mathematics) ; Geophysics (mathematics) ; viscous fingering ; miscible ; Saffman-Taylor ; enhanced oil recovery
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Miscible flow through porous media
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Booth, Richard J. S.
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2008
ResultId 1