Grayscale lattice Boltzmann model for multiphase heterogeneous flow through porous media.

Abstract

The grayscale lattice Boltzmann (LB) model has been recently developed to model single-phase fluid flow through heterogeneous porous media. Flow is allowed in each voxel but the degree of flow depends on that voxel's resistivity to fluid motion. Here we extend the grayscale LB model to multiphase, immiscible flow. The new model is outlined and then applied to a number of test cases, which show good agreement with theory. This method is subsequently used to model the important case where each voxel may have a different resistance to each particular fluid that is passing through it. Finally, the method is applied to model fluid flow through real porous media to demonstrate its capability. Both the capillary and viscous flow regimes are recovered in these simulations.