: Experimental Investigations of Dynamic Multiphase Flow Processes Using 3D Printed Micromodels. Attached you will find the summary.
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Energy, Geosci, Infrast & Society
Abstract
The study of multiphase flow processes for applications in natural porous media (e.g. groundwater extraction, hydrocarbon production, geothermal energy, subsurface energy and CO2 storage) is complicated by both:
1. the lack of a clear fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical processes underlying the transport phenomena;
2. the uncertainties in the pore network/geometries in the porous media, which hinder both, prediction of the flow behaviour and the development of physically more accurate transport models.
Advancements in additive manufacturing technologies provide opportunities for studying the various transport problems in multiphase systems independent of porous media uncertainties. At the pore scale, which is profoundly important for processes such as oil displacement in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and CO2 storage in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), precise micromodels can be 3D printed to enable experimental studies with designed flow paths in a repeatable fashion. With sufficient technology development, this could evolve into experiments involving 3D printed cores in full knowledge and control of the pore geometries.
In this project, various multiphase processes including, but not restricted too, injection of surfactant, polymer or CO2 will be visualised and compared with predictions, and deviations from predictions can aid the development of a better understanding which in turn will be used to improve predictive tools. The impact of parameters such as injection velocity, viscosity and wettability (i.e. contact angle between two fluids interface and the surface of the material) and how they control multiphase flow regimes (e.g. viscous and capillary fingering, pore-body filling, post finger coating) will be investigated. Control of wettability may be possible using the 3D printing technology itself, through changing the printing material, its roughness, or through surface coating. The far-reaching aim of this project is to open the door to the development of fully predictive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models of pore-scale multiphase flow.
1. the lack of a clear fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical processes underlying the transport phenomena;
2. the uncertainties in the pore network/geometries in the porous media, which hinder both, prediction of the flow behaviour and the development of physically more accurate transport models.
Advancements in additive manufacturing technologies provide opportunities for studying the various transport problems in multiphase systems independent of porous media uncertainties. At the pore scale, which is profoundly important for processes such as oil displacement in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and CO2 storage in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), precise micromodels can be 3D printed to enable experimental studies with designed flow paths in a repeatable fashion. With sufficient technology development, this could evolve into experiments involving 3D printed cores in full knowledge and control of the pore geometries.
In this project, various multiphase processes including, but not restricted too, injection of surfactant, polymer or CO2 will be visualised and compared with predictions, and deviations from predictions can aid the development of a better understanding which in turn will be used to improve predictive tools. The impact of parameters such as injection velocity, viscosity and wettability (i.e. contact angle between two fluids interface and the surface of the material) and how they control multiphase flow regimes (e.g. viscous and capillary fingering, pore-body filling, post finger coating) will be investigated. Control of wettability may be possible using the 3D printing technology itself, through changing the printing material, its roughness, or through surface coating. The far-reaching aim of this project is to open the door to the development of fully predictive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models of pore-scale multiphase flow.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Julien Maes (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Alexandros Patsoukis Dimou (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509474/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2021 | |||
| 2127426 | Studentship | EP/N509474/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/06/2022 | Alexandros Patsoukis Dimou |
| EP/R513040/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2023 | |||
| 2127426 | Studentship | EP/R513040/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/06/2022 | Alexandros Patsoukis Dimou |
| Description | The study of multiphase flow processes for applications in natural porous media (e.g. groundwater extraction, hydrocarbon production, geothermal energy, subsurface energy and CO2 storage) is complicated because of the complexity of the flow as well as uncertainties in the pore network geometries. Each rock sample extracted from the earth is unique and experiments conducted in real rocks alter the rock irreversibly, therefore experimental repeatability is not possible. The emergence of additive manufacturing, also called 3D printing, offers a compelling alternative. 3D printing allows for generating porous media in a repeatable fashion. Small alterations of 3D printed models also enable geometrical sensitivity analysis, something that is not commercially possible with the existing fabrication techniques like micromodel etching and moulding. As a first part of our work, we had to confirm the ability of our 3D printer to generate 2D rock geometry micromodels at realistic pore sizes. The work conducted proves that 3D printed micromodels with a specified geometry and a realistic pore size distribution can be repeatably and accurately generated and therefore there is potential to be used in the future for two-phase flow pore-scale investigations that manifest during applications like CCS, improved oil recovery and geothermal energy. After the 3D printed micromodel geometries were validated CO2 dissolution experiments at different flowrates were conducted in the 3D printed micromodel which is a process occurring at CO2 storage applications. During CCS processes large amount of CO2 is injected inside reservoir rocks. In such systems, CO2 can be physically trapped in porous rocks below an impermeable cap rock (structural trapping), some of which becomes trapped in small pores (residual trapping) and, over time, dissolves in groundwater (solubility trapping) and reacts with the subsurface rocks to form stable carbonate minerals (mineral trapping). As the storage progresses from structural to mineral trapping, the CO2 becomes more immobile, increasing the security of storage and decreasing the reliance on the efficacy of the cap rock. Solubility trapping is often neglected in pore-scale numerical modelling yet, it is essential for mineral trapping to occur. The experimental result of this work will allow to understand and develop fully predictive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models of pore-scale multiphase flow. Finally, a geologic candidate for CO2 storage often is Carbonate reservoirs. Carbonate rocks are multiscale systems where features in the order of few microns like pores and features of few millimetres, like fractures are present. Fractures allow fluids to move at an extremely high speed through the reservoir and possibly leak out, which would undermine engineering efforts. We must thus be able to predict these fluid movements. Stokes-Brinkman equation gives a seamless transition between Stokes and Darcy equations allowing to solve Navier stokes equation to the large features and Darcy's equation to small features. Multiscale direct numerical models that solve single phase flow Darcy-Brinkman-Stokes exist, yet has not been validated by experimental data. Therefore, experimental work to validate those models is conducted which will allow model validation and allow for further model development to predict complex flow in carbonate rocks. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes of this funding have three key results which can be taken forward and put to use: Firstly, the validation of 3D printed micro-models as a medium to perform fluid flow experiments will allow more researchers to use the advantages of 3D printing to study flow phenomena in subsurface processes but also in other types of sciences where fluid flow is studied, like medicine and chemical engineering. Secondly, the experimental data produced by the CO2 dissolution experiments can be used in order to develop pore-scale flow numerical models. This will allow to be able to fully predict flow at the pore-scale and therefore extract pore scale information that can be upscaled and optimise the larger scale process of interest which is CO2 Sequestration. Finally, experimental results conducted in multi-scale geometries will allow us to benchmark multi-scale flow models. The outcome of this work is the first step and will allow modelling, with way less computational power, of single phase-flow processes at the core scale. Further development will allow modelling of the multiphase flow and extracting more successfully core data in order to optimise large scale applications like enhanced oil recovery and CO2 Sequestration. |
| Sectors | Energy,Environment |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.03597 |