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Two-phase gravity currents resulting from the release of a fixed volume of fluid in a porous medium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2017

Madeleine J. Golding Open the ORCID record for Madeleine J. Golding [Opens in a new window] ,
Herbert E. Huppert  and
Jerome A. Neufeld
Madeleine J. Golding*
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB3 0WA, UK
Herbert E. Huppert
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB3 0WA, UK School of Mathematics, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia Faculty of Science, University of Bristol, BristolBS8 1UH, UK
Jerome A. Neufeld
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB3 0WA, UK BP Institute, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CambridgeCB3 0EZ, UK Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CambridgeCB3 0EZ, UK
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

We consider the instantaneous release of a finite volume of fluid in a porous medium saturated with a second, immiscible fluid of different density. The resulting two-phase gravity current exhibits a rich array of behaviours due to both the residual trapping of fluid as the current recedes and the differing effects of surface tension between advancing and receding regions of the current. We develop a framework for the evolution of such a current with particular focus on the large-scale implications of the form of the constitutive relation between residual trapping and initial saturation. Pore-scale hysteresis within the current is represented by families of scanning curves relating capillary pressure and relative permeability to saturation. In the resulting vertically integrated model, all capillary effects are incorporated within specially defined saturation and flux functions specific to each region. In the long-time limit, when the height of the current and the saturations within it are low, the saturation and flux functions can be approximated by mathematically convenient power laws. If the trapping model is approximately linear at low saturations, the equations admit a similarity solution for the propagation rate and height profile of the late-time gravity current. We also solve the governing partial differential equation numerically for the nonlinear Land’s trapping model, which is commonly used in studies of two-phase flows. Our investigation suggests that for trapping relations for which the proportion of trapped to initial fluid saturation increases and tends to unity as the initial saturation decreases, both of which are properties of Land’s model, a gravity current slows and eventually stops. This trapping behaviour has important applications, for example to the ultimate distance contaminants or stored carbon dioxide may travel in the subsurface.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Gravity currents Multiphase and Particle-laden Flows: Multiphase flow Low-Reynolds-number flows: Porous media
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 832 , 10 December 2017 , pp. 550 - 577
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Copyright
© 2017 Cambridge University Press 

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