{
  "id": "2012.09206",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2020-12-16T19:04:55.000Z",
  "updated": "2020-12-16T19:04:55.000Z",
  "title": "Capillary fluctuations and energy dynamics for flow in porous media",
  "authors": [
    "James E. McClure",
    "Steffen Berg",
    "Ryan T. Armstrong"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "physics.flu-dyn",
    "cond-mat.soft"
  ],
  "abstract": "Capillary energy barriers have important consequences for immiscible fluid flow in porous media. We derive time-and-space averaging theory to account non-equilibrium behavior and understand the role of athermal capillary fluctuations and their relationship to phenomenological equations for multiphase flow. The formulation resolves several key challenges associated with two-fluid flow in porous media:(1) geometric and thermodynamic quantities are constructed as smooth functions of time based on time-and space averages; (2) averaged thermodynamics are developed for films; (3) multi-scale fluctuation terms are identified, which account for transient behaviours of interfaces and films that occur due to pore-scale events; (4) a criterion for representative elementary volume (REV) is established based on capillary fluctuations; (5) geometric constraints are derived and imposed on the averaged thermodynamics; and (6) a new constitutive model is proposed for capillary pressure dynamics that includes contributions from fluctuations. Based on the derived definitions, capillary fluctuations are assessed quantitatively based on pore-scale simulations and experimental core-flooding data.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2020-12-16T19:04:55.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "porous media",
      "energy dynamics",
      "account non-equilibrium behavior",
      "capillary energy barriers",
      "multi-scale fluctuation terms"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}