Flow phenomena in rocks: from continuum models to fractals, percolation, cellular automata, and simulated annealing

Abstract

In this paper, theoretical and experimental approaches to flow, hydrodynamic dispersion, and miscible and immiscible displacement processes in reservoir rocks are reviewed and discussed. Both macroscopically homogeneous and heterogeneous rocks are considered. The latter are characterized by large-scale spatial variations and correlations in their effective properties and include rocks that may be characterized by several distinct degrees of porosity, a well-known example of which is a fractured rock with two degrees of porosity—those of the pores and of the fractures. First, the diagenetic processes that give rise to the present reservoir rocks are discussed and a few geometrical models of such processes are described. Then, measurement and characterization of important properties, such as pore-size distribution, pore-space topology, and pore surface roughness, and morphological properties of fracture networks are discussed. It is shown that fractal and percolation concepts play important roles in the characterization of rocks, from the smallest length scale at the pore level to the largest length scales at the fracture and fault scales. Next, various structural models of homogeneous and heterogeneous rock are discussed, and theoretical and computer simulation approaches to flow, dispersion, and displacement in such systems are reviewed. Two different modeling approaches to these phenomena are compared. The first approach is based on the classical equations of transport supplemented with constitutive equations describing the transport and other important coefficients and parameters. These are called the continuum models. The second approach is based on network models of pore space and fractured rocks; it models the phenomena at the smallest scale, a pore or fracture, and then employs large-scale simulation and modern concepts of the statistical physics of disordered systems, such as scaling and universality, to obtain the macroscopic properties of the system. The fundamental roles of the interconnectivity of the rock and its wetting properties in dispersion and two-phase flows, and those of microscopic and macroscopic heterogeneities in miscible displacements are emphasized. Two important conceptual advances for modeling fractured rocks and studying flow phenomena in porous media are also discussed. The first, based on cellular automata, can in principle be used for computing macroscopic properties of flow phenomena in any porous medium, regardless of the complexity of its structure. The second, simulated annealing, borrowed from optimization processes and the statistical mechanics of spin glasses, is used for finding the optimum structure of a fractured reservoir that honors a limited amount of experimental data.