Coupling of two-phase flow in fractured-vuggy reservoir with filling medium

Haojun Xie, Aifen Li, Zhaoqin Huang, Bo Gao, Ruigang Peng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Caves in fractured-vuggy reservoir usually contain lots of filling medium, so the two-phase flow in formations is the coupling of free flow and porous flow, and that usually leads to low oil recovery. Considering geological interpretation results, the physical filled cave models with different filling mediums are designed. Through physical experiment, the displacement mechanism between un-filled areas and the filling medium was studied. Based on the experiment model, we built a mathematical model of laminar two-phase coupling flow considering wettability of the porous media. The free fluid region was modeled using the Navier-Stokes and Cahn-Hilliard equations, and the two-phase flow in porous media used Darcy's theory. Extended BJS conditions were also applied at the coupling interface. The numerical simulation matched the experiment very well, so this numerical model can be used for two-phase flow in fracture-vuggy reservoir. In the simulations, fluid flow between inlet and outlet is free flow, so the pressure difference was relatively low compared with capillary pressure. In the process of water injection, the capillary resistance on the surface of oil-wet filling medium may hinder the oil-water gravity differentiation, leading to no fluid exchange on coupling interface and remaining oil in the filling medium. But for the water-wet filling medium, capillary force on the surface will coordinate with gravity. So it will lead to water imbibition and fluid exchange on the interface, high oil recovery will finally be reached at last.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)12-17
Number of pages6
JournalOpen Physics
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Haojun Xie et al.

Keywords

  • Coupling flow
  • Filling medium
  • Fracture-vuggy media
  • Remaining oil
  • Wettability

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