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The impact of wettability on the co-moving velocity of two-fluid flow in porous media is analyzed herein. The co-moving velocity, developed by Roy et al. (2022), is a novel representation of the flow behavior of two fluids through porous media. Our study aims to better understand the behavior of the co-moving velocity by analyzing simulation data under various wetting conditions. The simulations were conducted using the Lattice-Boltzmann color-fluid model and evaluated the relative permeability for different wetting conditions on the same rock. The analysis of the simulation data followed the methodology proposed by Roy et al. (2022) to reconstruct a constitutive equation for the co-moving velocity. Surprisingly, it was found that the coefficients of the constitutive equation were nearly the same for all wetting conditions. Based on these results, a simple approach was proposed to reconstruct the oil phase relative permeability using only the co-moving velocity relationship and water phase relative permeability. This proposed method provides new insights into the dependency of relative permeability curves, which has implications for the history matching of production data and solving the associated inverse problem. The research findings contribute to a better understanding of the impact of wettability on fluid flow in porous media and provide a practical approach for estimating relative permeability based on the co-moving velocity relationship, which has never been shown before., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

Data assimilation (DA) provides a general framework for estimation in dynamical systems based on the concepts of Bayesian inference. This constitutes a common basis for the different linear and nonlinear filtering and smoothing techniques which gives a better understanding of the characteristics and limitations of each approach. In this study, four nonlinear filters for systems governed by stochastic continuous dynamics with discrete measurements are inferred as different approximate solutions to the Fokker-Planck equation in the prediction step of the Bayesian update. The characteristics and drawbacks of each filtering approach are discussed in light of the introduced approximations to the original Bayesian problem in each case. The introduced continuous-discrete (CD) filters are then implemented to solve the combined estimation problem of the state and parameter variables in a nonlinear system described by a stochastic differential equation (SDE), namely, the continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). The performance measures for each filter, such as estimation errors, computational cost, and the ability to quantify the correct uncertainty, are compared and investigated with attribution to the assumed approximations introduced in the derivation of each class of filters.

Percolation theory and the associated conductance networks have provided deep insights into the flow and transport properties of a vast number of heterogeneous materials and media. In practically all cases, however, the conductance of the networks' bonds remains constant throughout the entire process. There are, however, many important problems in which the conductance of the bonds evolves over time and does not remain constant. Examples include clogging, dissolution and precipitation, catalytic processes in porous materials, as well as the deformation of a porous medium by applying an external pressure or stress to it that reduces the size of its pores. We introduce two percolation models to study the evolution of the conductivity of such networks. The two models are related to natural and industrial processes involving clogging, precipitation, and dissolution processes in porous media and materials. The effective conductivity of the models is shown to follow known power laws near the percolation threshold, despite radically different behavior both away from and even close to the percolation threshold. The behavior of the networks close to the percolation threshold is described by critical exponents, yielding bounds for traditional percolation exponents. We show that one of the two models belongs to the traditional universality class of percolation conductivity, while the second model yields non-universal scaling exponents.

Relative permeability is commonly used to model immiscible fluid flow through porous materials. In this work we derive the relative permeability relationship from conservation of energy, assuming that the system to be non-ergodic at large length scales and relying on averaging in both space and time to homogenize the behavior. Explicit criteria are obtained to define stationary conditions: (1) there can be no net change for extensive measures of the system state over the time averaging interval; (2) the net energy inputs into the system are zero, meaning that the net rate of work done on the system must balance with the heat removed; and (3) there is no net work performed due to the contribution of internal energy fluctuations. Results are then evaluated based on direct numerical simulation. Dynamic connectivity is observed during steady-state flow, which is quantitatively assessed based the Euler characteristic. We show that even during steady-state flow at low capillary number ($\mathsf{Ca}\sim1\times10^5$), typical flow processes will explore multiple connectivity states. The residence time for each connectivity state is captured based on the time-and-space average. The distribution for energy fluctuations is shown to be multi-modal and non-Gaussian when terms are considered independently. However, we demonstrate that their sum is zero. Given an appropriate choice of the thermodynamic driving force, we show that the conventional relative permeability relationship is sufficient to model the energy dissipation in systems with complex pore-scale dynamics that routinely alter the structure of fluid connected pathways.

This article provides an overview of the current state of digital rock technology, with emphasis on industrial applications. We show how imaging and image analysis can be applied for rock typing and modeling of end-point saturations. Different methods to obtain a digital model of the pore space from pore scale images are presented, and the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods are discussed. We also show how imaging bridges the different subjects of geology, petrophysics and reservoir simulations, by being a common denominator for results in all these subjects. Network modeling is compared to direct simulations on grid models, and their respective strengths are discussed. Finally we present an example of digital rock technology applied to a sandstone oil reservoir. Results from digital rock modeling are compared to results from traditional laboratory experiments. We highlight the mutual benefits from conducting both traditional experiments and digital rock modeling., Comment: 36 pages, 18 figures

Steady-state upscaling of relative permeability is studied for a range of reservoir models. Both rate-dependent upscaling and upscaling in the capillary and viscous limits are considered. In particular, we study fluvial depositional systems, which represent a large and important class of reservoirs. Numerical examples show that steady-state upscaling is rate dependent, in accordance with previous work. In this respect we introduce a scale-dependent capillary number to estimate the balance between viscous and capillary forces. The difference between the limit solutions can be large, and we show that the intermediate flow rates can span several orders of magnitude. This substantiate the need for rate-dependent steady-state upscaling in a range of flow scenarios. We demonstrate that steady-state upscaling converges from the capillary to the viscous limit solution as the flow rate increases, and we identify a simple synthetic model where the convergence fails to be monotone. Two different sets of boundary conditions were tested, but had only minor effects on the presented reservoir models. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of steady-state upscaling by performing dynamic flow simulation at the reservoir scale, both on fine-scaled and on upscaled models. The considered model is viscous dominated for realistic flow rates, and the simulation results indicate that viscous limit upscaling is appropriate., Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables

In this article we investigate the permeability of a porous medium as given in Darcy's law. The permeability is described by an effective hydraulic pore radius in the porous medium, the fluctuation in local hydraulic pore radii, the length of streamlines, and the fractional volume conducting flow. The effective hydraulic pore radius is related to a characteristic hydraulic length, the fluctuation in local hydraulic radii is related to a constriction factor, the length of streamlines is characterized by a tortuosity, and the fractional volume conducting flow from inlet to outlet is described by an effective porosity. The characteristic length, the constriction factor, the tortuosity and the effective porosity are thus intrinsic descriptors of the pore structure relative to direction. We show that the combined effect of our pore structure description fully describes the permeability of a porous medium. The theory is applied to idealized porous media, where it reproduces Darcy's law for fluid flow derived from the Hagen-Poiseuille equation. We also apply this theory to full network models of Fontainebleau sandstone, where we show how the pore structure and permeability correlate with porosity for such natural porous media. This work establishes how the permeability can be related to porosity, in the sense of Kozeny-Carman, through fundamental and well-defined pore structure parameters: characteristic length, constriction, and tortuosity., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

In this article we investigate the electrical conductance of an insulating porous medium (e.g., a sedimentary rock) filled with an electrolyte (e.g., brine), usually described using the Archie cementation exponent. We show how the electrical conductance depends on changes in the drift velocity and the length of the electric field lines, in addition to the porosity and the conductance of the electrolyte. We characterized the length of the electric field lines by a tortuosity and the changes in drift velocity by a constriction factor. Both the tortuosity and the constriction factor are descriptors of the pore microstructure. We define a conductance reduction factor to measure the local contributions of the pore microstructure to the global conductance. It is shown that the global conductance reduction factor is the product of the tortuosity squared divided by the constriction factor, thereby proving that the combined effect of tortuosity and constriction, in addition to the porosity and conductance of the electrolyte, fully describes the effective electrical conductance of a porous medium. We show that our tortuosity, constriction factor, and conductance reduction factor reproduce the electrical conductance for idealized porous media. They are also applied to Bentheimer sandstone, where we describe a microstructure-related correlation between porosity and conductivity using both the global conductance reduction factor and the distinct contributions from tortuosity and constriction. Overall, this work shows how the empirical Archie cementation exponent can be substituted by more descriptive, physical parameters, either by the global conductance reduction factor or by tortuosity and constriction., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

A basic finite dimensional algebra over an algebraically closed field $k$ is isomorphic to a quotient of a tensor algebra by an admissible ideal. The category of left modules over the algebra is isomorphic to the category of representations of a finite quiver with relations. In this article we will remove the assumption that $k$ is algebraically closed to look at both perfect and non-perfect fields. We will introduce the notion of species with relations to describe the category of left modules over such algebras. If the field is not perfect, then the algebra is isomorphic to a quotient of a tensor algebra by an ideal that is no longer admissible in general. This gives hereditary algebras isomorphic to a quotient of a tensor algebra by a non-zero ideal. We will show that these non-zero ideals correspond to cyclic subgraphs of the graph associated to the species of the algebra. This will lead to the ideal being zero in the case when the underlying graph of the algebra is a tree.

We show that every k-linear abelian Ext-finite hereditary category with Serre duality which is generated by preprojective objects is derived equivalent to the category of representations of a strongly locally finite thread quiver., Comment: 32 pages, 12 pictures

We introduce thread quivers as an (infinite) generalization of quivers, and show that every k-linear (k algebraically closed) hereditary category with Serre duality and enough projectives is equivalent to the category of finitely presented representations of a thread quiver. In this way, we obtain an explicit construction of a new class of hereditary categories with Serre duality., Comment: As accepted by the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society; some differences in label and page numbering may occur between this version and the published version

Let k be an algebraically closed field and A a k-linear hereditary category satisfying Serre duality with no infinite radicals between the preprojective objects. If A is generated by the preprojective objects, then we show that A is derived equivalent to rep_k Q for a so called strongly locally finite quiver Q. To this end, we introduce light cone distances and round trip distances on quivers which will be used to investigate sections in stable translation quivers of the form \mathbb{Z} Q., Comment: 16 pages, as accepted by Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra