The Viscosity of Methane in Organic Slit Nanopore of Gas-Bearing Shale by Molecular Dynamic Simulation

Abstract

Non-Darcy flow is observed in the shale gas reservoir because it is rich in organic nanopores. Generally, the permeability of shale gas reservoirs is modified because of non-Darcy flow. However, the viscosity is much less concerned. It has been verified that the viscosity of dilute gas depends on the size of the pore. In this paper, the viscosity of methane in organic slit nanopore is determined with equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulation. The result shows that the viscosity of bulk methane would decrease with dropping down pressure, while the confined effect would make the viscosity of methane in the organic slit nanopore lesser than that of the bulk phase, and it decreases severely at low pressure. The confined dense gas viscosity model is obtained by theoretical derivation. The EMD results were fitted with this model to obtain the viscosity correction method for dense methane in organic slit nanopores. The dimensionless viscosity (μeff/μb) would decrease sharply with the Knudsen number between 0.1 and 10. Unlike the confined effect on the dilute gas, the potential contribution of the dense gas and the wall also affects its viscosity. Because of the confined effect on the dense methane, the flow capacity of methane is enhanced 1.5 times at least with the pore being smaller than 10 nm and the pressure being lower than 5 MPa. It means that keeping a low reservoir pressure helps to improve the flow of shale gas. This work can improve the understanding of the importance of gas viscosity with the non-Darcy flow in shale gas reservoirs.