Pore scale modeling of immiscible and miscible fluid flows using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

A numerical model based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) was developed and used to simulate immiscible and miscible fluid flows in porous media and to study effects of pore scale heterogeneity and anisotropy on such flows. Models for heterogeneous porous media were generated by using randomly located non-intersecting circular grains of different sizes, and pore scale anisotropy was introduced by randomly inserting non-overlapping particles on either side of the gap between two self-affine fractal curves to create a microfracture. Different fluid wetting behaviors and surface tensions were modeled using pair-wise particle–particle interactions. In simulations of miscible fluid flow, particles with variable, composition dependent, masses and viscosities were used. Artificial surface tension effects were avoided by basing the SPH equations on the particle number density.