Physical and Numerical Simulation of Tight Gas Flow at the Microscale

Jianzhong Zhang, Shusheng Gao (), Wei Xiong, Liyou Ye, Huaxun Liu, Wenqing Zhu, Ying Mu and Wente Niu
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Jianzhong Zhang: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Shusheng Gao: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Wei Xiong: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Liyou Ye: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Huaxun Liu: Institute of Porous Flow & Fluid Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Langfang 065007, China
Wenqing Zhu: Institute of Porous Flow & Fluid Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Langfang 065007, China
Ying Mu: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
Wente Niu: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: The porous media in tight reservoirs are mainly composed of micro- and nanopores, gas seepage through which is complex, making it difficult to study. Physical simulation using micron tubes is an intuitive and effective method to study the seepage mechanism of tight gas. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is the most effective method for the tight gas seepage simulation, and it has been widely used. Microscale gas seepage simulation experiments and LBM simulations of micron tubes with different inner diameters were performed. The results showed that in micron tubes, the gas flow increases nonlinearly with an increasing pressure gradient. Influenced by compression and rarefaction effects, the degree of the nonlinearity of pressure distribution in series micron tubes increases with inlet pressure. The existence of a connecting channel between parallel micron tubes breaks the linear distribution of pressure in the original micron tubes, and the gas forms a raised relative high-pressure area at the connection of the two micron tubes; the wider the channel, the greater the bulge. The average gas flow rate in the whole micron tube increases with the channel width, and the seepage capacity increases instead of decreases. The diameter change of one micron tube has no effect on the gas flow in the other micron tube. Although the two micron tubes are connected, they are still relatively independent individuals. These research results lay a foundation for the correct understanding of the characteristics and laws of tight gas seepage in the pores of reservoirs at the micro- and nanoscales, and they have important theoretical significance for the study of seepage mechanisms in tight gas reservoirs.

Keywords: tight gas; micron tube seepage; lattice Boltzmann method simulation; parallel micron tube; seepage ability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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