Effective Rheology of Two-Phase Flow in Three-Dimensional Porous Media: Experiment and Simulation.

ABSTRACT: We present an experimental and numerical study of immiscible two-phase flow of Newtonian fluids in three-dimensional (3D) porous media to find the relationship between the volumetric flow rate (Q) and the total pressure difference ([Formula: see text]) in the steady state. We show that in the regime where capillary forces compete with the viscous forces, the distribution of capillary barriers at the interfaces effectively creates a yield threshold ([Formula: see text]), making the fluids reminiscent of a Bingham viscoplastic fluid in the porous medium. In this regime, Q depends quadratically on an excess pressure drop ([Formula: see text]). While increasing the flow rate, there is a transition, beyond which the overall flow is Newtonian and the relationship is linear. In our

SUBMITTER: Sinha S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5522531 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature