PNNL

Abstract

A numerical model based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) was used to simulate pore-scale liquid and gas flow in synthetic two-dimensional porous media consisting of non-overlapping grains. The model was used to study effects of pore scale heterogeneity and anisotropy on relationship between the average saturation and the Bond number. The effect of the wetting fluid properties on drainage was also investigated. It is shown that pore-scale heterogeneity and anisotropy can cause saturation/Bond number and entry (bubbling) pressures to be dependent on the flow direction suggesting that these properties should be described by tensor rather than scalar quantities.