Simulation of two-phase flow in porous media using an inhomogeneous network model

We present an inhomogeneous two-dimensional network model of two-phase flow in porous media. The edges of the network are assumed to be capillary tubes of different radii. We propose a new algorithm for handling phase fluxes at the nodes of this network model. We perform two test problems and show that the two-phase flow in this inhomogeneous network model demonstrates properties that are analogous to those of real porous media: capillary imbibition, dependence of capillary pressure on saturation and effect of capillary forces in two-phase displacement. The two test problems are: the counter-current imbibition and the twophase displacement in a periodically inhomogeneous porous medium. In the former problem, we implement a network consisting of two regions: a region of low-permeability with thin capillaries surrounded by a region of high-permeability with thick capillaries, initially saturated with wetting and nonwetting incompressible fluids, respectively. Capillary equilibrium is established due to counter-current imbibition by a region. We examine the dependence: of saturation of the wetting fluid with respect to time in the regions, and of capillary pressure on the current saturation. We have obtained a qualitative agreement with the known experimental and theoretical results, which will further allow us to use this network model to verify homogenized models of capillary nonequilibrium. In the latter problem, we consider the two-phase displacement, where the network is initially saturated with nonwetting fluid. Then wetting fluid is injected through a boundary at a constant rate. We analyze the saturation with respect to the axis which is along the applied pressure gradient for various moments in time with various values of coefficients of surface tension. The results show that for lower values of coefficient of surface tension, the wetting fluid prefers to invade through the thicker tubes, and in the case of higher values, through thinner tubes.