Transport in complex media

Transport in complex media

General presentation

The work of the team is focused on the study of two- and three-phase flows of multicomponent fluids in porous media. Several aspects are considered: (i) mass transfer from the solid matrix and between phases, (ii) phase transitions, (iii) capillary and surface effects. Analytical and numerical models of these phenomena are developed with applications in petroleum engineering, underground gas storage, in-situ leaching, non-conventional energy exploitation, geothermal energy and radioactive waste storage.

Current work

Modeling of multiphase flow at the pore level or at the scale of a pore system

In the analysis of two- and three-phase flows in porous media, we need to take into account several phenomena occurring at pore scale including the presence of a variable number of interfaces between the phases, the interaction between the fluids and the solid matrix, and the existence of chemical reactions between the components. The models developed in this work are based on the diffuse-interface method which allows for an efficient treatment of the dynamics of interfaces and related phenomena. Their influence on the flow at macroscopic scale is examined and compared with the results obtained from macroscopic models of the evolution of menisci in porous media.

Unconventional resources of energy: coal bed methane production

Coal bed methane is an unconventional source of energy. The assisted recovery of coal gas by injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) makes it possible to combine the exploitation of a gas resource with an environmentally sustainable procedure of carbon dioxide sequestration. We develop a mathematical and numerical model of this process taking into consideration the set of coupled transport and poromechanical phenomena, which occur at different length scales: from nanopores to the scale of the reservoir.

Stability of two-phase oil-water flows in porous medium studied by MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most modern methods to obtain experimental information from non-transparent materials such as porous media, and especially the rocks of underground reservoirs. The team “IRM for engineering” of LEMTA is nationally known for its techniques of nuclear magnetic resonance applied to the porous and structured media. We study two-phase flows in porous media under the simultaneous effect of gravity, viscosity and surface tension with the aim to obtain the dynamic parameters of these processes in an experimental way using the MRI technique and also by performing the numerical modeling on the pore-scale.

Industrial and societal applications

  • Assisted oil recovery (Collaboration with Total, Schlumberger)
  • In-situ leaching of metals (Collaboration with KazNU, Katko)
  • Coal bed methane production (Collaboration with KBTU, GeoResources)
  • Aquifer pollution prevention (Collaboration with BRGM)

Contacts