The Effect of Surface Roughness on Immiscible Displacement Using Pore Scale Simulation

Abstract

Pore scale immiscible displacement is crucial in oil industry. The surface roughness of throat is an important factor affecting water–oil interface movement. In this paper, the Navier–Stokes (N-S) equation coupled with the phase-field method is adopted to analyze the oil–water flow and interface movement in single channel, considering different surface roughness, diverse wettability and various capillary numbers. The simulation results show that the resistance increases significantly due to the surface roughness. The velocity of interface movement in rough channels is slower than that in smooth channels. The existence of asperities strengthens the interface deformation and promotes the formation of fingering phenomenon. The water flooding process presents different flow patterns in the rough channel with diverse wettability, and the influence of wall roughness on oil–water interface movement is different under various wettability conditions. There is an approximate exponential relationship between the ratio of interface length to channel length and capillary number. When the capillary number exceeds 0.03574, the phenomenon of viscous fingering is obvious, and the influence of capillary number is amplified by roughness.