Pressure and Saturation Fluctuations Observed During Multiphase Flow Experiments: Even at Steady-State – Are Not Necessarily Noise but Have a Physical Origin

Pressure and Saturation Fluctuations Observed During Multiphase Flow Experiments: Even at Steady-State – Are Not Necessarily Noise but Have a Physical Origin

M. Rücker, A. Georgiadis, R. T. Armstrong, H. Ott, N. Brussee, H. van der Linde, L. Simon, F. Enzmann, M. Kersten, S. Berg

In multiphase flow in porous media, steady-state conditions are intuitively associated with stable pressure and saturation. However, frequent reports in the literature show pressure and saturation fluctuations much larger than pore-scale displacement events. Our study has revealed the underlying physical origin of these fluctuations, which are neither random noise nor experimental artifacts but caused by a longitudinal flow instability causing travelling saturation waves which have a higher total mobility than flat saturation profiles. The observations are consistent with a hysteretic fractional flow model which may shed a new light on the conceptual picture of multiphase flow.

Frontiers in Water, 2021
Corresponding Authors: Steffen Berg

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