HR: 0800h
AN: H31A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Small-Scale Modeling of Fluid Displacement Patterns in Layered Porous Media
AU: * Karpyn, Z T
EM: ztk101@psu.edu
AF: The Pennsylvania State University, 151 Hosler Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States
AU: Ayala, L F
EM: lfay@psu.edu
AF: The Pennsylvania State University, 122 Hosler Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States
AB: Naturally occurring porous media are inherently heterogeneous. The depositional characteristics that give rise to permeable formations, and the complex diagenetic processes taking place afterwards, create important heterogeneous features such as bedding planes, fractures, and faults. Rock heterogeneities can have strong impact on fluid displacement patterns because they define preferential flow paths in underground permeable formations. The efficiency of processes of pollution and contaminant removal from soil and groundwater, as well as hydrocarbon recovery, is greatly controlled by our ability to understand and represent fluid transport in heterogeneous permeable media. The present study focuses on a numerical analysis of two-phase flow in fractured rocks exhibiting contrasting rock properties in the form of bedding planes. Simulation scenarios were conducted to monitor contaminant displacement during water imbibition in a synthetic permeable medium model with multiple layers and a single fracture. A commercially available reservoir simulator was used to construct the synthetic three-dimensional model. Previous laboratory observations aid in the construction of the model and interpretation of results. Rock and fluid properties assigned to the synthetic model were estimated from those reported in the literature for a similar rock-fluid system. The presence of bedding planes in the rock's structure was found to have a strong impact on the advancing water front. Temporal saturation maps and fluid displacement patterns are presented in this work for various rates of injection and rock-property contrasts. Even though fracture capillary pressures are often regarded as negligible in the modeling of fractured porous media, our findings suggest that fractures can still provide passages under strong capillary action, which are able to drive wetting fluids into the rock matrix. Such behavior can be captured through proper description of fracture capillary pressures.
DE: 1832 Groundwater transport
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1859 Rocks: physical properties
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly