- Author
- Martys, N. S. | Hagedorn, J. G. | Goujon, D. | Devaney, J. E.
- Title
- Large Scale Simulations of Single and Multi-Component Flow in Porous Media.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD Telecomm INT, Cedex, France
- Distribution
- For more information contact: Website: http://ciks.cbt.nist.gov/~garbocz/spie/article.html
- Book or Conf
- Developments in X-Ray Tomography II. Proceedings. SPIE: The International Society for Optical Engineering. SPIE Volume 3772. July 22-23, 1999, Denver, CO, 205-213 p., 1999
- Keywords
- porous media | lattice Boltzmann | microtomography | parallel computing | permeability
- Abstract
- We examine the utility of the lattice Boltsmann method for modeling fluid flow in large microstructures. First, results of permeability calculations are compared to predicted values for several idealized geometries. Large scale simulations of fluid flow through digitized images of Fontainebleau sandstone, generated by X-ray microtomography, were then carried out. Reasonably good agreement was found when compared to experimentally determined values of permeabiity for similar rocks. We also calculate relative permeability curves as a function of fluid saturation and driving force. The Onsager relation, which equates off-diagonal components of the permeability tensor for two phase flow, is shown not to hold for intermediate to low nonwetting saturation, since the response of the fluid flow to an applied body force was nonlinear. Values of permeabiity from three phase flows are compared to corresponding two phase values. Performance on several computing platforms is given.