Gas injection in a liquid saturated porous medium. Influence of pressurization effects and liquid films

Clément Louriou (1) , Hanène Ouerfelli (1, 2) , Marc Prat (1) , Mustapha Najjari (3) , Sassi Ben Nasrallah (2)

1 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse
2 LESTE / ENIM - Laboratoire d'Etudes des Systèmes Thermiques et Energétiques [Monastir]
3 Université de Gabès

We study numerically and experimentally the displacement of a liquid by a gas in a two-dimensional model porous medium. In contrast with previous pore-network studies on drainage in porous media, the gas compressibility is fully taken account. The influence of the gas injection rate on the displacement pattern, breakthrough time and the evolution of the pressure in the gas phase due in part to gas compressibility are investigated. A good agreement is found between the simulations and the experiments as regards the invasion patterns. The agreement is also good on the drainage kinetics when the dynamic liquid films are taken into account.

Mots clés: Drainage; Porous media; Pore network; Gas compressibility; Gas injection; Thin porous media; Liquid films

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Clément Louriou, Hanène Ouerfelli, Marc Prat, Mustapha Najjari, Sassi Ben Nasrallah. Gas injection in a liquid saturated porous medium. Influence of pressurization effects and liquid films. Transport in Porous Media, 2012, 91 (1), pp.153-171. ⟨10.1007/s11242-011-9838-2⟩. ⟨hal-03527976⟩