Non-Newtonian polymeric fluid transport through porous media

Abstract

The non-Newtonian rheology of polymer solutions makes it challenging to understand the pore-scale behaviour of polymer solutions in porous media, and therefore, it also presents challenges to upscale their pore-scale properties to the Darcy scale. An analytical and numerical approach are adopted in the thesis to evaluate the effect of non-Newtonian rheology on polymeric fluid flow in porous media. In an analytical approach, Darcy viscosity is upscaled from pore-scale shear viscosity using the Bundle-of-Capillaries model modified with a pore-correction coefficient and a fluid-correction coefficient. This approach is based on an exact analytical solution derived in the present work for the flow of non-Newtonian fluids described by a shear stress-dependent Meter model and a viscoelastic Phan-Thien-Tanner model. An OpenFOAM-based method has been developed for numerically simulating single-phase and two-phase flow in 2D and 3D porous media, involving Meter model fluids to gain pore-scale insight. The results suggest that the effective viscosity and Reynolds numbers defined in this work correctly describe non-Newtonian fluid flow as laminar, turbulent, and transition flow. Pore-scale single-phase simulation in 2D and 3D porous media indicates that the fluid's Darcy viscosity is associated with the fluid's viscosity in the active mobile zone of porous media only. The viscoelastic fluid flow simulation shows elastic instability at low Reynolds number flow in a 2D and 3D porous medium. The volume-of-fluid method-based two-phase simulation indicates that pore-scale micro-heterogeneity and wettability govern non-Newtonian fluid flow front stability while displacing Newtonian fluid. Simulations based on the Euler-Lagrangian approach (discrete particle modelling) show that nanoparticle transport in porous media exhibits non-Fickian behaviour due to heterogeneity-dependent confinement. The generalised Newtonian fluid equation proposed for shear thickening fluids captures all typical shear thickening fluid regimes and can be used to do single-phase simulations.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Vahid Joekar-Niasar (Supervisor) & Masoud Babaei (Supervisor)