Relative permeabilities and coupling effects in steady-state gas-liquid flow in porous media: A lattice Boltzmann study

In this paper, the viscous coupling effects for immiscible two-phase (gas-liquid) flow in porous media were studied using the Shan-Chen-type single-component multiphase lattice Boltzmann model. Using the model, the two-phase flows in porous media with density ratio as high as 56 could be simulated and the contact angle of the gas-liquid interface at a solid wall is adjustable. To investigate viscous coupling effects, the co- and countercurrent steady-state two-phase flow patterns and relative permeabilities as a function of wetting saturation were obtained for different capillary numbers, wettabilities, and viscosity ratios. The cocurrent relative permeabilities seem usually larger than the countercurrent ones. The opposing drag-force effect and different pore-level saturation distributions in co- and countercurrent flows may contribute to this difference. It is found that for both co- and countercurrent flows, for strongly wet cases and viscosity ratio M>1, k(nw) increase with the driving force and the viscosity ratio. However, for neutrally wet cases, the variations of k(nw) and k(w) are more complex. It is also observed that different initial pore-level saturation distributions may affect final steady-state distribution, and hence the relative permeabilities. Using the cocurrent and countercurrent steady flow experiments to determine the generalized relative permeabilities seems not correct.