Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.

org/ on February 28, 2018

Two-phase fluid flow in

geometric packing
rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org
Aureliano Sancho S. Paiva1 , Rafael S. Oliveira1,2 and
Roberto F. S. Andrade1
1 Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 40210-210
Research
Salvador, Brazil
Cite this article: Paiva ASS, Oliveira RS, 2 Centro de Formação de Professores, Universidade Federal do
Andrade RFS. 2015 Two-phase fluid flow in Recôncavo da Bahia, 45300-000 Amargosa, Brazil
geometric packing. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373:
20150111.
We investigate how a plug of obstacles inside a
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0111 two-dimensional channel affects the drainage of high
viscous fluid (oil) when the channel is invaded
Accepted: 27 July 2015 by a less viscous fluid (water). The plug consists
of an Apollonian packing with, at most, 17 circles
of different sizes, which is intended to model an
One contribution of 13 to a theme issue ‘Topics inhomogeneous porous region. The work aims to
on non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and quantify the amount of retained oil in the region
nonlinear physics (II)’. where the flow is influenced by the packing.
The investigation, carried out with the help of
Subject Areas: the computational fluid dynamics package ANSYS-
fluid mechanics, complexity FLUENT, is based on the integration of the complete
set of equations of motion. The study considers the
Keywords: effect of both the injection speed and the number
and size of obstacles, which directly affects the
bi-phase flow, Apollonian packing,
porosity of the system. The results indicate a complex
oil drainage dependence in the fraction of retained oil on the
velocity and geometric parameters. The regions where
Author for correspondence: the oil remains trapped is very sensitive to the number
Roberto F. S. Andrade of circles and their size, which influence in different
ways the porosity of the system. Nevertheless, at low
e-mail: randrade@ufba.br
values of Reynolds and capillary numbers Re < 4 and
nc  10−5 , the overall expected result that the volume
fraction of oil retained decreases with increasing
porosity is recovered. A direct relationship between
the injection speed and the fraction of oil is also
obtained.

1. Introduction
Flows of bi-phase fluids in porous media occur in a
large number of industrial applications and in natural
systems. Among them, we may indicate boiling and
pressurized water reactors, phase separators used in oil
production, geo-meteorological phenomena, including
sedimentation and soil erosion, blood flow [1–4].

2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

As well known, the phenomenological concept ‘porous medium’ encompasses a multitude of

2
physical conditions that share a common property: the presence of solid matter within the region
where the flow is observed. The medium can be in the form of a single plug, inside which many

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
narrow channels allow for the fluid flow, or in the form of a large number of solid disconnected
obstacles, which also lead to the presence of very narrow channels as compared to the linear
dimensions of region [5]. The first situation often occurs in the subsurface, where large pressures
compact geological layers to form porous sedimentary rocks, which form the preferential storage
system for petroleum, gas and water. The second situation can be thought of as sand and gravel
systems on river bed, but also on subsurface systems where the sedimentary rocks have been
fractured either by natural or anthropogenic factors [6,7].
Both situations were first described in a uniform way, by means of the permeability k, a single
phenomenological parameter characterizing the global effect of the solid matter that forces the
fluid to flow along a much more complex pattern, with much higher energy dissipation when
compared with the corresponding obstacle-free flow. Here k depends on several geometrical and
physical properties of the medium, like the porosity φ [3,4]. The investigation of the dependence
of k on the actual distribution of solid matter largely benefited from computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) methods [8,9], i.e. from the direct integration of flow equations. Another strategy in the
study of fluid motion that also received much attention consists in replacing the actual medium by
cellular models [10]. Macroscopic quantities are treated locally, by assuming that the displacement
of the fluid among neighbouring cells must obey the proper conservation laws. In the case of
porous media, this amounts to consider a discrete assembly of interconnected channels, and
assuming that within each channel the flow is obstacle free [11,12].
Both possibilities, initially proposed to single-phase problems, can be conveniently extended
to consider multi-phase flows. Here, the scope of the problem is enhanced, and questions beyond
understanding the details of resistance of the medium to the flow arise. The most direct one is to
describe how the obstacles change the regions that different fluids occupy.
In this work, we consider the flow of a two-phase Newtonian fluid (e.g. water and oil) in a
two-dimensional channel that accommodates a number of circular obstacles (discs), geometrically
displaced according to the Apollonian packing [13–16]. This particular assembly, which has
been used in previous investigations [17,18] about the dependence of k with respect to packing
composed of obstacles of different sizes, aims to describe the main properties of a fractured
medium with grains of different sizes.
For such packing, φ and k depend on the number and size of discs [17,18], a fact that influences
the results discussed herein. We would like to call attention that usual porous medium studies
consider that the whole region where the fluid flows is somewhat homogeneous. This differs from
the described model set-up, which is characterized by the presence of obstacles in a limited region
of the channel, the rest being obstacle free. This limitation is due to our intention to concentrate
the study to understanding the effect of a number of obstacles in retaining some fraction of a
resident (defending) viscous fluid (oil) when the region is invaded by a less viscous fluid.
The main goal of this study is to understand how the presence of the packing limits the access
of each phase to different regions of inside the channel. Since we consider, as initial conditions,
that oil occupies the space where the packing is placed, we obtain information about the fraction
of oil retained inside the channel due to the presence of the packing. Our investigation explored
the dependence of the retained oil with respect to the input velocity and the two geometric aspects
(size and number of discs) defining the porosity of the packing. Since no analytic solution of
the Navier–Stokes for this problem is available, it can only be addressed within CFD or other
numerical approach as, for instance, cellular automata and lattice Boltzmann methods.

2. Model
We consider a two-dimensional channel in the plane XY, limited by two parallel lines placed
at y = ±h/2, where the fluid flow takes places under a pressure gradient applied along the
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

(a)
3
L
1 2 3 4 h

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
(b)

Figure 1. (a) First and (b) third generations of the Apollonian packing inside the channel of height h and extension L. The
numerical integration considers non-slip boundary conditions in the interface between any solid object (all discs in the packing
and channel walls) and any fluid. (Online version in colour.)

X-direction. In its interior, a set of discs, grouped according to an Apollonian packing, models
a fractured porous region, composed of isolated obstacles. This packing was introduced by
Apollonius of Perga in the third century BC as the solution to the problem of determining the
minimum number of non-overlapping circles necessary to cover a region in the plane [19]. In our
model, the packing is constructed according to the following rule. Initially, at the first packing
generation G = 1, four tangent discs of the same size, with radius R = h/4, are placed together
within the channel, in such a way that their centres are located on the vertices of a square of
side h/2. The second generation G = 2 is obtained by adding three more discs: one in the centre
of the G = 1 packing, which touches the four G = 1 discs, and two discs in the space limited by
two discs and one of the walls, which are considered to be circles with infinite radii placed at
y = ±∞. Higher order generations G > 2 are obtained by adding up new tangent circles in all
spaces limited by any three discs in the previous generation. The number of discs in the packing
at generation G is indicated by NG . We recall that, given any set of three mutually tangent circles
with known radii and centre locations, it is possible to determine the radii and the coordinates of
the centres of a fourth circle that is tangent to the three previous ones [19].
The touching discs in the described configuration refrain fluid movement under the pressure
gradient for any value of G. To allow for fluid displacement, it becomes necessary to open
channels between the discs, which is achieved by uniformly reducing their radii Ri by a factor
s < 1. In this work, we consider s = 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9, and G = 1, 2 and 3. In this way, the packing
porosity, which takes account of the space between the discs within a square of area h2 , depends
both on s and on G, i.e. φ = φ(s, G). For the purpose of finding the numerical solution within the
CFD procedure, the otherwise infinite channel is considered to have a finite length L.
The model set-up is illustrated in figure 1, for G = 1 (a) and G = 3 (b), and s = 0.9. For the
purpose of keeping track of the presence of the defending (oil) and invading (water) fluids in
different regions of the channel, it is divided into four zones Zi i = 1 4, indicated by different
colours (grey tones). With this division, it is possible to use a facility in the CFD application to
choose the area in which we want to calculate the volume of each of the phases. At the initial
integration time (t = t0 = 0), the invading fluid (water) occupies zone Z1 . The void space of zone
Z2 , as well as zones Z3 and Z4 are fully filled with oil.
This model has already been used to investigate the flow of single-phase fluid under different
boundary conditions. Although the particular choice of disc sizes and geometrical placement
can hardly be found in natural systems, the use of the Apollonian packing to model porous
geometry has some advantages, which result from this specific packing geometry. Indeed, among
many other properties, it is observed that the disc sizes decay exponentially as their number
in the packing grow, the distribution of discs with respect to their number of neighbours in
the packing decays as a power law, the network obtained connecting the centres of touching
discs, which reproduces the structure of contact forces, is topologically invariant. When it is
used in any numerical modelling, the packing is limited to a finite number of sites but, due to
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

its deterministic nature, it is easy to improve the quality of the results, just by increasing the
4
value of G (and number of discs) in a controlled way. As we mentioned in the Introduction,
the geometrical properties of the packing provide an interesting way to analyse the properties of

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
flows in a region occupied by objects of different sizes, for instance, a fractured rock. The model
can also be changed by randomly disturbing the geometrical setting. This amounts to changing
the positions and/or sizes of discs, as well as individually selecting the reduction factor for
each object. By controlling amplitude of such changes, it is possible gradually approach to more
realistic description of porous media formed by isolated objects [20]. Finally, the number of discs
can also be increased by adding more than one set of discs defined by the Apollonian packing,
which can be subjected to random disturbances as discussed earlier. Of course, the investigation
of all possible generalizations is far beyond the scope of this work. Therefore, we concentrate on
the results for the pure deterministic packing. In such case, it is not necessary to take averages
over discs distributions. Nevertheless, we have performed several independent integrations for
the same geometry, as the CFD results may be susceptible to uncontrolled rounding-off error
propagations.
The geometrical set-up considered the channel width h = 4.0 mm, while the total length
L = 33 mm is assigned to the four zones according to the following scheme: Z1 : 1 mm; Z2 : 4 mm
(packing zone); Z3 : 8 mm; Z4 : 20 mm. By properly re-scaling the linear dimensions, velocities and
fluid features of the fluid used in this study, our results can also be applied to similar systems of
different sizes. The fact that the permeability of similar systems of different size does not differ
much has been pointed out as an advantage of numerical methods in other approaches to porous
media problems [20,21].

3. Methods
The equations of mass and momentum conservation are integrated with the help of ANSYS-
FLUENT CFD package, under the assumption of incompressible and isothermal regime [22]. The
equation of conservation of mass, or the continuity equation, is written as
∂ρ
+ ∇ · (ρv) = Sm . (3.1)
∂t
This equation is valid for both compressible fluids as for incompressible fluids, and the term Sm
is the flow mass added to the continuous phase from a dispersed phase. The incompressibility
assumption requires that ρ does not depend on time. Thus, if Sm = 0, the continuity equation
reduces to
∇ · v = 0. (3.2)

The equation for momentum conservation, in an inertial system of reference, is written as

∂
(ρv) + ∇ · (ρvv) = −∇p + ∇.(τ̄ ) + ρg + F, (3.3)
∂t
where p is the pressure, τ̄ is the stress tensor, ρg is the gravitational force on the fluid mass and F
represents any external force acts in the fluid.
The stress tensor τ̄ is given by

τ̄ = μ[(∇v + ∇vT ) − 23 ∇ · vI], (3.4)

where μ is the molecular viscosity, I is the unit tensor and the second term on the r.h.s. describes
the effect of volume expansion. Thus, ignoring external forces, and using the non-slip condition
and the continuity equation in equations (3.3) and (3.4), the momentum conservation equation is
reduced to the Navier–Stokes equation
∂v
ρ + ρv. ∇v = −∇P + μ∇ 2 v. (3.5)
∂t
The numerical integration takes into account the usual non-slip boundary condition (v = 0)
between all solid–fluid interfaces. The CFD framework requires the definition of a mesh, which
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

results from a division of the domain into discrete, non-overlapping cells [9]. The differential
5
equations expressing mass and momentum conservation are transformed into algebraic equations
for the values of the pertinent fields on the faces of the cells. The resulting values for each of

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
the two fluid phases are interpolated to the centre of cells. For a model formed by circles, as
the Apollonian packing, it is advisable to use a discretization based on triangular cells, which
allow for a best fit of the curved walls. The mesh generator used to discretize the domain ignores
the symmetry of the packing geometry, resulting in a triangulation, which does not obey mirror
symmetry with respect to the centre line. In this study, the end effect is that the mesh does
not exactly reproduce the reflection symmetry with respect to the horizontal line at centre of
the channel. In the next section, it is possible that asymmetric oil retention patterns result as
stationary state at the end of invading process. Therefore, a completely symmetric mesh would be
relevant in this study in order to discern if any pattern asymmetry results from discretization or
from the intrinsic instability of a more symmetric solution. Nevertheless, we were able to greatly
circumvent the mesh asymmetry by imposing the same mesh boundaries at all fixed walls, which
significantly reduced mesh distortions.
In the numerical solution of equations (3.2) and (3.5) for two-phase systems, the Courant–
Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) condition is taken in account to analyse the stability of the solution [9]
and controlling its accuracy. For two-dimensional systems, the CFL condition is expressed by
vx t vy t
C= + ≤ Cmax , (3.6)
x y
where C is the (dimensionless) Courant number, t is the time step, vx (vy ) is the velocity along
the x (y)-direction, and x (y) is the displacement of the fluid phase travelled within the cell
along x (y)-direction. The CFL condition relates the typical time interval required for the fluid
parcel to traverse any given cell. If the CFL condition is not satisfied, errors associated with un-
physical deformation of the two fluid interface may propagate, so that the numerical solution
becomes meaningless. For two-phase systems, condition (3.6) must be satisfied for the velocities
of both fluids, which leads to difficulties in adjusting space discretization and time step in order
to optimize the performance of the package.
Indeed, when ANSYS-FLUENT performs a time-dependent multi-phase fluid flow calculation
[22], the time step used for the volume fraction calculation will not be the same as the time step
used for the rest of the transport equations. In the region near the fluid interface, the software
divides the area of each cell by the sum of the outgoing fluxes. The result represents the time it
would take for the fluid to empty out that cell (with known size). The characteristic transit time
is taken as the minimum value of this time taken over all the cells. It is used to verify whether
condition (3.6) holds.

4. Results
The results we obtained were limited to the low Reynolds number regime (Re < 10), where
hv̄ρ
Re = . (4.1)
μ
For this range of Re values, the properties of the flow also depend on the capillary number nc ,
defined by
μv̄
nc = . (4.2)
σ
In equations (4.1) and (4.2), h indicates the channel height, v̄ the constant inlet speed of the
invading fluid, ρ and μ represent the invading fluid density and viscosity, respectively, while σ
is the surface tension between the two fluids [5,23]. In this investigation, the capillary number,
which expresses the relationship between the viscous force and surface tension between the
two fluids, takes values in the interval 3.0 × 10−6 < nc < 3.5 × 10−5 . So it covers not only a
range conditions where capillary forces dominate viscous forces nc ∼ = 10−5 , but also the opposite
situation in which viscous forces dominate the flow.
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

Table 1. Velocity, Reynolds number and capillary number.

6
−1
Vel (m s ) Re nc

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
0.0001 0.39 3.21 × 10−6
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

0.00025 0.99 8.03 × 10−6

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

0.0005 1.99 1.60 × 10−5

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

0.00075 2.98 2.41 × 10−5

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

0.001 3.98 3.21 × 10−5

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

The effect of the packing on the drainage of oil from the channel by the less viscous fluid
depends on the values of the following parameters: contact angle, inlet speed, channel size,
fluid viscosities and surface tension [23]. For each of the quoted values of reduction factor s and
generation G, we carried on numerical integration of the system for five different values of inlet
speed v̄ indicated in table 1. During this procedure, the values of all other parameters were kept
fixed.
For the invading fluid, we used the properties of water at 20◦ C, which corresponds to
ρinv = 998.2 kg m−3 and μinv = 0.001003 kg ms−1 , while the defending fluid is characterized by
ρdef = 922 kg m−3 and μdef = 0.05 kg ms−1 . This corresponds to oil with typical density (in respect
to that of water) expressed by American Petroleum Institute (API) index 22. Further parameter
values are σ = 0.0312 N m−1 , contact angle between fluids θ = π/2, and time integration step
τ = 2.5 × 10−4 s.
The choice of the inlet speed range was based on the analysis of the flow of the same two-phase
system in a channel without any obstacle. We selected values of v̄ such that, in the packing-free
condition, all oil could be expelled by the invading water. In this way, we can be sure that any oil
retention was caused only by the presence of the packing. The corresponding value of Re were
low enough to be in the laminar (table 1). There is an intermediate range of values of the inlet
velocity in which the regime is still laminar but the invading fluid is not able to completely expel
the oil from the channel. This regime is characterized by a particular fingering pattern, in which
a single finger is opened connecting inlet to outlet, through which water flows. In the stationary
regime, a certain amount of oil remains adhered to the channel walls [23].
We measure the effectiveness of the oil drainage by the quantities B2 and B2,3 . Let Oi , i = 2, 3,
denote the amount of oil retained in zones Z2 and Z3 . The amount of oil initially placed in the
 G
zone Z2 corresponds to A2 = h2 − N i=1 π ri (s), where ri (s) indicates the radius of each disc in the
2

packing with reduction factor s. Then let us define

O2 O2 + O3
B2 = and B2,3 = , (4.3)
A2 A2

so that B2 informs how much oil was expelled from Z2 by the invading fluid, and B2,3 measures
the total amount of oil that could not be recovered at the end of the process.

(a) Process of oil retention

When water is injected at a constant speed, it first pressures the amount of water initially placed in
Z1 against oil in Z2 , forcing it into Z3 . After some time interval, water also reaches Z3 but leaves
behind a certain amount of oil between the discs in the zone Z2 . Depending on the features of
the two fluids and on the value of v̄, the channels opened by the invading fluid (consequently,
the regions where oil remains stored) may have different patterns. The fraction of retained oil
depends essentially on the resulting channel pattern. Variations on the retained fraction (e.g. when
v̄ is increased) are much smaller when the channel pattern is not changed when compared with
the opposite condition, in which a new channel pattern arises. In all investigated situations, water
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

(a)
7

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
(b)

(c)

Figure 2. Typical trapped oil pattern in the first-generation packing for (a) v̄ = 0.001 m s−1 , (b) v̄ = 0.00075 m s−1 and (c)
v̄ = 0.0005 m s−1 . Patterns in (b,c) do not display inversion symmetry. (Online version in colour.)

flow through the central channel, horizontally placed between the large G = 1 discs, has been
observed. The central channel is the preferential path taken by the invading fluid.
Water reaches Z3 in three different patterns: (i) exclusively through the central channel;
(ii) through the central channel and one of the two channels formed by a large circle and the
wall; and (iii) through all three channels. In this last case, the flow through Z3 and Z4 is much like
that observed in the packing-free channel at the same value of v̄. The invading fluid completely
expels oil from these regions. The amount of retained oil (if any) is trapped within the channels
between the discs and, eventually, a small drop attached to the right part of the discs in the
downstream direction.
In case (i), the invading fluid flowing through the central channel pressures oil towards the
walls. For the chosen values of v̄, the invading fluid causes the progressive decrease of the width
of the oil layers adhered to the walls, until the rupture of the resulting thin films occurs. This
happens at a certain distances (not necessarily the same for the two walls) from the point marking
the beginning of Z3 . At the moment this occurs, the large surface tension causes the oil left behind
to flow back in the −x-direction. An amount of oil remains attached to the large circle, part in zone
Z2 , part in Z3 . Similarly, the region occupied by the downstream oil is also reshaped towards
the usual interface pattern of the packing-free invasion process. Finally, the dynamics in case
(ii) follows a combination of the processes observed in (i) and (iii).
The different scenarios described above depend on the number and size of discs through
changes in the total area of the walls of the channel, which impact on the influence of the viscous
forces. It is possible to identify a trend towards the enhancement in the amount of oil expelled
with decreasing speed, which results from changes between capillary forces and viscous forces.
The changes in oil retention profile are also related to accumulation in the downstream region
after the packing, as can be seen in figures 2 and 3.
The qualitative analysis of the flow by the direct comparison of resulting patterns indicates
that the presence of new circles causes the water to penetrate the porous region, as can be seen by
the comparison between figures 2 and 3.
These illustrations indicate that, in a laminar flow with low Re, despite the larger energy
dissipation, owing to the increase in the fluid–wall interface caused the increase of the number
of discs, geometric aspects of the porous region can facilitate the invasion of water into thinner
channels. However, this is not a guarantee of an enhancement of oil removal, because oil can
be trapped in other regions. These can be better understood by combining the observation of
trapping patterns with quantitative measures expressed by the parameters B2 and B2,3 .
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

(a)
8

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
(b)

(c)

Figure 3. Typical trapped oil patterns for G = 2, s = 0.8 and (a) v̄ = 0.0005 m s−1 , (b) v̄ = 0.00075 m s−1 and (c) v̄ =
0.001 m s−1 . All patterns lack inversion symmetry with respect to the centre of the channel. (Online version in colour.)

(a) (b)
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
60 60
50 50
B2,3
B2

40 40
30 30
20 20
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
v–(cm s–1) v–(cm s–1)

Figure 4. Volume fractions (a) B2 and (b) B2,3 as function of v̄. Squares, circles and triangles correspond, respectively, to G = 1, 2
and 3. From top to bottom, s increases from 0.7 to 0.8 and 0.9. (Online version in colour.)

(b) Analysis of the volume fraction of retained oil

Figure 4 illustrates the dependence of B2 and B2,3 with respect to v̄ for G = 1, 2, and 3 and
s = 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9. It shows that B2 remains almost constant for different values of v̄ when
G = 1. This is consistent with the illustrations in figure 3, showing that the invading fluid flows
predominantly through the central channel, while the four secondary channels between circles
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

(a) (b)
60 60 9
50 50

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
40 40
30 30
20 20
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
60 60
50 50

B2,3
B2

40 40
30 30
20 20
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65
f(s, g) f(s, g)

Figure 5. Volume fractions (a) B2 and (b) B2,3 as function of φ(s, G). Squares, circles and triangles correspond, respectively,
to G = 1, 2 and 3. For fixed G, φ decreases for increasing values of s = 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9. From top to bottom, v̄ assumes the
following values (in cm s−1 ): 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075 and 0.1. (Online version in colour.)

and walls remain blocked. The only exception observed for the smallest value of v̄ when s = 0.7
results from opening one channel between one of the left discs and the wall. On the other hand,
for the same values of s and v̄, the dependence of B2,3 is subject to larger variations. This results
from the different amounts oil that remain attached to the right of the discs, most of which occupy
regions in zone Z3 .
This picture changes for the higher generations, mainly because of the presence of the disc
with the second largest radius in the central part of the packing. This disc alters the flow pattern
in different ways for different values of s and v̄. The dependence of B2 as function of v̄ is
characterized by large variations for all values of s, some of which with opposite tendencies.
Fluctuations in the behaviour of B2,3 are enhanced, since it results from oil stacked within the
small channels as well as in the region behind the large circles zone Z3 .
Despite the large fluctuations in the values of B2 and B2,3 with respect to v̄, an overall general
tendency is the increase in the fraction of retained oil as the value of s increases. Although this
aspect becomes more evident for B2,3 , it can also be detected in the case of B2 . This corresponds
to the reported behaviour in other previous studies and the overall known resistance to remove a
fluid from dense packing and media with small porosity. The larger differences between B2 and
B2,3 when the value of s increases is explained by the fact that the amount of oil O3 is less sensitive
to variations in the value of s than O2 and A2 .
It is important to note that the two different measures can guide expected results for other
packing arrangements that can be built in similar way. If the whole channel is filled with discs,
one should expect the value of B2 as a good approximation. However, for inhomogeneous
packing, where regions with obstacles and obstacle-free alternate, B2,3 should provide a better
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

approximation for the fraction of retained oil. This is useful when one compares the dependency
10
of these measures as function of v̄ as well as for the analysis of the dependency with respect to
the porosity, that is carried out in the following subsection.

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
(c) Porosity
The results for the fraction of retained oil can also be analysed as a function of the packing
porosity, i.e. as function of φ = A2 /h2 . This is illustrated in figure 5, where we show graphs for
B2 and B2,3 as a function of φ for each of the five different values of v̄. Once φ = φ(s, G), each panel
comprise nine points. For the sake of a better visualization, we identify the points corresponding
to the same value of G by different symbols and/or colours, connected by straight lines, so that
the variation of φ results from different values of s.
The graphs for B2,3 show a decrease in the fraction of retained oil with increasing porosity, that
is, it becomes easier to expel the oil from the packing for larger values of φ, when the channels
between the discs and between the discs and the walls are wider.
This dependency becomes weaker in the case we compare the behaviour of B2 . For instance,
when G = 1, the fraction of oil retained within the packing region can be regarded as rather
insensitive to the value of s for almost all values of v̄. For G = 2 and 3, the tendency of a decrease
in B2 with respect to φ is again recognized, but the range of retained values is clearly smaller.
As already discussed, the changes in the trend of the reduction of retained oil with respect to s
are related to different accumulation patterns indicated in figures 2 and 3. This occurs more often
at low values of v̄. The graphs also make evident that, at G = 1 there is less variation, what can be
explained by the dominating role of the pattern where only the central channel is opened by the
invading fluid.

5. Conclusion
This work discussed the numerical investigation of a two-phase flow. The main focus was to
obtain a quantitative relationship between the amount of oil retained within a two-dimensional
channel with a packing of discs of different sizes in its interior when the system is invaded by
a less viscous fluid. Although the flow differs from that occurring in a Hele–Shaw set-up by
neglecting the viscosity effect between fluids and limiting plates, viscous fingering phenomena
are also present [24]. The packing is constructed by a geometric recurrence rule, and the flow
proceeds at low speed to warrant a laminar flow. The regime of low velocity was also reduced to
warrant that, at all invading velocities used in the investigation, no oil would be retained inside
the channel in the packing-free condition.
The total amount of retained oil depends on the invading fluid velocity as well as on several
geometrical features, including the number, position and size of the discs. No simple relation
could be obtained between this amount and any single specific geometric feature of the packing.
Global tendencies, however, can be detected. They are consistent with empirical findings that
extraction is difficult when porosity is small and the invading velocity increases.
The quantitative results were expressed in terms of the fraction of oil retained in the region
where the packing was contained, as well as in terms of all remaining oil. This makes it possible
to extrapolate the results to situations in which a larger number of obstacles is uniformly placed
within the channel, or when they follow a sequence of regions with and without obstacles.
Different effects follow the increase of the number of discs inside the channel. On one side, it
creates barriers within the porous region and increases the area of contact of fluid with the walls.
At the same time, changes in the flow pattern may enhance the efficiency of the invading fluid in
expelling the resident one.
Preliminary results for more complex configurations, with two or more Apollonian plugs
placed inside the channel, confirm that the devised framework can lead to similar results for
more realistic patterns (see §2), which will be discussed in a forthcoming contribution. The
computational efforts to investigate many distinct configurations are much larger, as we have
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

to consider all difficulties that this study made evident for the simulation of two-phase flows
11
within CFD. A good mesh discretization becomes crucial due to the necessity to account for the
fractions of two fluids in the same cell. The control of Courant number, which is not relevant to

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
the single-phase flow in the same packing, becomes an important issue. For a fixed mesh, this
control refrains the range of velocities of the invading fluid for which the condition expressed by
equation (3.6) is not violated. Finer meshes would be required to reach larger velocities, which
constitute a limitation to the investigation as compared to the single-phase system.
Authors’ contributions. A.S.S.P. conceived the study, prepared the CFD framework, carried out numerical work
and result analyses, and helped draft the manuscript; R.S.O. conceived the study and prepared the CFD
framework; R.F.S.A. conceived the study, coordinated the study and wrote the manuscript. All authors gave
final approval for publication.
Competing interests. We declare we have no competing interests.
Funding. The authors acknowledge the financial support of Brazilian agencies CNPq, CAPES, FINEP, and
FAPESB. R.F.S. Andrade benefit from the support of the Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para
Sistemas Complexos (INCT-SC).

References
1. Scheidegger AE. 1974 The physics of flow through porous media, 3rd edn. Toronto, Canada:
University Toronto Press.
2. Bear J. 2013 Dynamics of fluids in porous media. New York, NY: Dover Civil and Mechanical
Engineering, Dover Publications.
3. Sahimi M. 2011 Flow and transport in porous media and fractured rock: from classical methods to
modern approaches, 2nd edn. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH.
4. Dullien FAL, Brenner H. 2012 Porous media: fluid transport and pore structure. Amsterdam, The
Netherlands: Elsevier Science.
5. Tiab D, Donaldson EC. 2012 Petrophysics: theory and practice of measuring reservoir rock and fluid
transport properties, 2nd edn. Burlington, Gulf Professional Publication.
6. Vandenbossche J, Yox-theimer D, Vidic R, Brantley S, Abad J. 2013 Impact of
shale gas development on regional water quality. Science 340, 1235009. (doi:10.1126/
science.1235009)
7. Male F, Patzek T, Marder M. 2013 Gas production in the Barnett Shale obeys a simple scaling
theory. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 19 731–19 736. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1313380110)
8. Versteeg HK, Malalasekera W. 2007 An introduction to computational fluid dynamics: the finite
volume method. Harlow, UK: Longman Scientific and Technical.
9. Tu J, Yeoh GH, Liu C. 2012 Computational fluid dynamics: a practical approach. London, UK:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
10. Rothman DH, Zaleski. S. 1994 Lattice-gas models of phase separation: interfaces, phase
transitions, and multiphase flow. Rev. Mod. Phys. 66, 1417–1479. (doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.
66.1417)
11. Wilkinson D, Willemsen JF. 1983 Invasion percolation: a new form of percolation theory.
J. Phys. A 16, 3365–3376. (doi:10.1088/0305-4470/16/14/028)
12. Ferreol B, Rothman DH. 1995 Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of flow through fontainebleau
sandstone. In Multiphase flow in porous media (ed. PM Adler), pp. 3–20. Berlin, Germany:
Springer.
13. Adler P. 1985 Transport processes in fractals. I-Conductivity and permeability of a Leibniz
packing in the lubrication limit. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 11, 91–108. (doi:10.1016/0301-
9322(85)90007-2)
14. Adler PM, Thorvert JF. 1998 Real porous media: local geometry and macroscopic properties.
Appl. Mech. Rev. 51, 537–585. (doi:10.1115/1.3099022)
15. Doye JPK, Massen CP. 2005 Self-similar disk packings as model spatial scale-free networks.
Phys. Rev. E 71, 016128. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.71.016128)
16. JS Andrade, Herrmann HJ, Andrade RFS, da Silva LR. 2005 Apollonian networks:
simultaneously scale-free, small world, euclidean, space filling, and with matching graphs.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 018702. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.018702)
 Downloaded from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on February 28, 2018

17. Oliveira RS, Andrade JS, Andrade. RFS. 2010 Fluid flow through Apollonian packings. Phys.
12
Rev. E 81, 047302. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.81.047302)
18. Oliveira RS, Andrade JS, Andrade. RFS. 2015 Fluid flow through packings of rotating

rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20150111

.........................................................
obstacles. Phys. Rev. E 91, 033002. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.91.033002)
19. Mallows CL, Lagarias JC, Wilks AR. 2002 Beyond the descartes. Circle theorem. Am. Math.
Mon. 109, 338–361. (doi:10.2307/2695498)
20. Araújo AD, Bastos WB, Andrade JS, Herrmann HJ. 2006 Distribution of local fluxes in diluted
porous media. Phys. Rev. E 74, 010401. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.74.010401)
21. Almeida MP, Maksean HA, Stanley HE, Andrade JS, Costa UMS. 1999 Inertial effects on
fluid flow through disordered porous media. Phys. Rev. E 82, 5249. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.
82.5249)
22. ANSYS FLUENT 12.0. 2009 Theory guide. Lebanon, NH: ANSYS Inc.
23. Munson BR, Young DF, Okiishi TH, Huebsch. WW 2009 Fundamentals of fluid mechanics. New
York, NY: Wiley.
24. Saffman PG, Taylor GI. 1958 The penetration of a fluid into a porous medium or Hele–
Shaw cell containing a more viscous liquid. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 245, 312–329. (doi:10.1098/
rspa.1958.0085)