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Simulation of Two-Fluid Flow Through Particlulate Porous Media Contaning Moving Particles at Pore Scale Using Combined LB-DE Method

Ghassemi, Ali | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: Ph.D. Dissertation
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 42190 (09)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Civil Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Pak, Ali
  7. Abstract:
  8. A considerable number of engineering applications deal with flow of fluid(s) through particulate porous media. For certain engineering problems, fluid flow may displace and even dislodge the solid particles from the mass where a fluid-particle flow occurs. The complexity of involving processes which should be studied at the scale of moving particles transforms the analyses of these problems towards a difficult engineering task. Characteristics of solid grains such as size and shape and properties of the flowing fluid(s) such as viscosity and surface tension play essential roles in the behavior of fluid-particle systems. Also, when fluid flows through porous media, secondary processes such as rock wettability and tortuosity of the flow increase the complication of the analyses. In this study, development of a numerical tool for simulation of multi-fluid flow through particulate porous media containing moving particles has been carried out. The developed software provides the possibility of the numerical modeling of the hydro-mechanical problems at the level of meso-scale mechanisms. In this software, a coupled numerical approach based on Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) is employed. Various examples has been simulated by the developed numerical tool and the obtained results compared to the available closed-form solutions, experimental measurements and/or the results of other numerical models for the target benchmark problems. Three engineering applications have been examined by the newly developed numerical tool: 1) Study of the intrinsic permeability which is one of the fundamental parameters in flow analyses through porous media. The effects of factors such as porosity, particles’ size and gradiation on the variation of intrinsic permeability have been studied by the numerical model. Also, comparisons have been made between the obtained results and the predicted values by conventional predictive relationships. 2) Study of the relative permeability curves that have practical implications in petroleum reservoir simulations. Study of the effects of reservoirs wettability, pore shape geometry, and viscosity ratio of flowing fluids on relative permeabilities is of great importance in reservoir modeling. In this study, relative permeability curves have been derived from numerical analyses and the effects of different factors have been numerically investigated. 3) The developed has been utilized for simulation of sand production which is one of the important problems in petroleum industry. Full solution of real scale sand production is impractical by current computational resources; however, the numerical tool has proved to have the capability of investigating the mechanisms involved in sand production phenomenon. The important influencing factors on sand production phenomenon such as flow rate and confining pressure have been studied by the developed software.

  9. Keywords:
  10. Lattice Boltzmann Method ; Discrete Element Method ; Relative Permeability ; Particulate Porous Medium ; Two-Fluid Flow ; Intrinsic Permeability ; Sand Production

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