ANALYSIS OF PREFERENTIAL FLOW PATHS USING GRAPH-THEORY

Conceptually, both to understand the transport of single phase and mul ti-phase fluids through rocks and to analyze it, we require constituti ve relations between fluid capillary pressures, relative saturation an d relative permeability. Recently, an important phenomenon has been re cognized, namely the existence of 'preferred paths' that carry a dispo rtional share of the flow. This phenomenon is likely to be even more p ronounced for two-phase flow and if the networks are irregular and con ductances (throat diameters) are spatially correlated This study aims to provide a better understanding of fluid flow than do currently exis ting network models through numerical experiments on irregular network s, with different stochastic and spatially correlated properties using graph theory techniques.