The optimal displacement of immiscible two-phase fluids in a pore doublet

Abstract

The displacement of multiphase fluid flow in a pore doublet is a fundamental problem, and is also of importance in understanding of the transport mechanisms of multiphase flows in the porous media. During the displacement of immiscible two-phase fluids in the pore doublet, the transport process is not only influenced by the capillary and viscous forces, but also affected by the channel geometry. In this paper, we first present a mathematical model to describe the two-phase fluid displacement in the pore doublet where the effects of capillary force, viscous force and the geometric structure are included. Then we derive an analytical solution of the model for the first time, and find that the displacement process is dominated by the capillary number, the viscosity ratio and the radius ratio. Furthermore, we define the optimal displacement that the wetting fluids in two daughter channels break through the branches simultaneously (both of them have the same breakthrough time), and also obtain the critical capillary number corresponding to the optimal displacement, which is related to the radius ratio of two daughter channels and viscosity ratio of two immiscible fluids. Finally, it is worthy noting that the present analytical results on the displacement in the pore doublet can be used to explain and understand the phenomenon of preferential imbibition or preferential flow in porous media.