- Author
- Martys, N. S. | Chen, H.
- Title
- Simulation of Multicomponent Fluids in Complex Three-Dimensional Geometries by the Lattice Boltzmann Method.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD Exa Corp., Cambridge, MA
- Journal
- Physical Review E, Vol. 53, No. 1, 743-750, January 1996
- Keywords
- lattice Boltzmann | simulation | fluids | fluid flow | porous media
- Abstract
- We describe an implementation of the recently proposed lattice Boltzmann based model of Shan and Chen to simulate multicomponent flow in complex three-dimensional geometries such as porous media. The above method allows for the direct incorporation of fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interactions as well as an applied external force. As a test of this method, we obtained Poiseuille flow for the case of a single fluid driven by a constant body force and obtained results consistent with Laplace's law for the case of two immiscible fluids. The displacement of one fluid by another in a porous media was then modeled. The relative permeability for different wetting fluid saturations of a microtomography-generated image of sandstone was calculated and compared favorably with experiment. In addition, we show that a first-order phase transition, in three dimensions, may be obtained by this lattice Boltzman method, demonstrating the potential for modeling phase transitions and multiphase flow in porous media.