New Insights Into Complex Interactions Between Heterogeneity and Wettability Influencing Two‐Phase Flow in Porous Media

New Insights Into Complex Interactions Between Heterogeneity and Wettability Influencing Two‐Phase Flow in Porous Media

Sahar Bakhshian, Harris S. Rabbani, Seyyed A. Hosseini, Nima Shokri

We investigated coupled effects of wettability and heterogeneity on two-phase flow in porous media under a wide range of contact angle using a multiphase lattice Boltzmann model. We show that the recovery efficiency increases monotonically as the contact angle increases in the heterogeneous porous medium. However, a non-monotonic trend is observed in the homogenous porous medium with the maximum recovery occurring at intermediate wet conditions. Pore-scale mechanisms controlling macroscopic flow responses under varying wettability and heterogeneity are revealed in our work.

Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL088187
Corresponding author: Bakhshian Sahar