Modeling fluid flow in porous media with broad pore size distributions

5 Dec , 2024 Digital rock physics,GeoSlicer,Pore Network Model

📢 Modeling fluid flow in porous media with broad pore size distributions remains an open challenge, as balancing field of view and voxel resolution often requires difficult compromises.

🔬 Our latest developments 🔬
We’re excited to share our developments on multiscale pore network models, implemented in the open-source solution Geoslicer. Multiscale PNM addresses this challenge by representing subresolution pores through effective properties while reducing the computational cost associated with large pore counts.

⚙️ Our workflow:
1️⃣ Starts with pore network extraction using the multiphase Sub-Network of an Over-segmented Watershed (SNOW) method from PoreSpy (Gostick, 2019), applied to a porosity map image.
2️⃣ Pores are then classified into Darcy pores (microporous regions) and Navier-Stokes pores (macroporous regions).
3️⃣ One-phase and two-phase flow simulations are performed using Valvatne (2004) for Navier-Stokes pores,
4️⃣ While Darcy pores are modeled with an adaptation of Bultreys (2015), modified with a parallel capillaries model calibrated with MICP experimental data to improve subscale flow predictions.

More info about GeoSlicer: LINK

The workflow is a product of our contribution with Petrobras. Special thanks for LTrace team, Rafael Arenhart, Giovanni Formighieri, Robim Pacheco, and Rômulo Cenci, and Petrobras team, Rodrigo Surmas, Candida Menezes de Jesus and Rafael Rabelo Melo

📖 References:
Bultreys T, Hoorebeke , L V, Cnudde V Multi-scale, micro-computed tomography-based pore network models to simulate drainage in heterogeneous rocks, Advances in Water Resources 78, 2015
Gostick J, Khan ZA, Tranter TG, Kok MDR, Agnaou M, Sadeghi MA, Jervis R. PoreSpy: A Python Toolkit for Quantitative Analysis of Porous Media Images. Journal of Open Source Software, 2019
Valvatne, Per & Blunt, Martin. Predictive pore-scale modeling of two-phase flow in mixed wet media. Water Resour. Res. 40. , 2004

#PorousMedia #FluidFlow #MultiscaleModeling #PoreNetworkModeling
#GeoSlicer #OpenSourceSoftware #DigitalRocks

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