Project description
Solving complex fluid flow in porous media
Managing the flow of immiscible fluids, like oil and water, through porous materials is crucial for applications such as oil recovery and aquifer replenishment. However, predicting how these fluids move is difficult because they behave differently at microscopic and large scales. The complex structure of porous media adds to the challenge, making it hard to model fluid flow accurately. Current methods struggle to link small-scale fluid behaviour to larger systems. In this context, the ERC-funded AGIPORE project will develop a new theory based on statistical mechanics. This approach will help predict fluid movement across different scales and improve practical applications, such as managing water resources and oil recovery.
Objective
The flow of immiscible fluids in porous media is at the heart of a wide range of applications, some of which are central to humanity. Oil recovery has traditionally had such a role, but more recently, aquifer replenishment to maintain water supplies has become a field of increasing worldwide importance.
Immiscible multiphase flow in porous media is a problem in hydrodynamics of extraordinary complexity. Not only does one have the intricacies of moving fluid interfaces, but the flow occurs within a pore space having a highly contorted geometry.
Porous media typically span orders of magnitude in length scales: The pore scale may be in the micrometer range or less whereas the macroscopic scale may be in the kilometer range. Is there a way to find a description of the flow at these large scales from a knowledge of how the fluids behave at the pore scale?
My claim is that there is. Statistical mechanics, which has been used to derive thermodynamics from the motion of molecules, can be reformulated to do the same for immiscible multiphase flow in porous media. This sounds like an impossible task as statistical mechanics demands equilibrium whereas the flow problem is driven. The approach I propose is based on information theory and hydrodynamics.
My objective is to develop a complete theory for immiscible multiphase flow in porous media at large scales based on a reformulation of statistical mechanics that encompasses the pore scale physics and which is simple enough to be useful in practical engineering applications.
This will allow me to reproduce accurately the formation of viscous fingers when a less viscous fluid invades a more viscous fluid. This is a problem as important in field-scale modelling as it is difficult.
This will be the first time a statistical mechanics framework for non-thermal, non-equilibrium systems has been developed. This has interest far beyond the realm of porous media.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesthermodynamics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsstatistical mechanics
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
7491 Trondheim
Norway