2013/11/15 by A. Cortis, Cortis, Andrea, Dmitriy Silin +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Groundwater flow and contamination studies #NMR spectroscopy and applications #Seismic Imaging and Inversion Techniques
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1311.3988
openalex publication_date 2013/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a numerical study aimed at comparing two approaches to the evaluation of relative permeability curves from 3D binary images of porous media. One approach hinges on the numerical solution of Stokes equations, while the other is based on the Johnson-Koplik-Dashen (JKD) universal scaling theory of viscous frequency-dependent flow [D.~L. Johnson, J.~Koplik, and R.~Dashen, Theory of dynamic permeability and tortuosity in fluid--saturated porous media, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 176 (1987), 379--402.] and the method of maximal inscribed spheres. JKD steady-flow simulations only require the solution of a boundary-value problem for the Laplace equation, which is computationally less intensive than the solution of Stokes equations. A series of numerical calculations performed on 3D pore-space images of natural rock demonstrate that JKD-based estimates are in good agreement with the corresponding Stokes-flow numerical simulations.