Numerical pore-scale modeling of three-phase fluid flow: Comparison between simulation and experiment

It has been recently shown experimentally by Oren and Pinczewski [SPE Form. Eval. 7, 70 (1992); 9, 149 (1994)] that on the pore scale the presence of continuous wetting and spreading films is vitally important in describing t he mobility of the various fluid phases in three-phase fluid flow. In this paper we put in place a numerical, pore-scale model to describe three-phase drainage dominated flow. Our model incorporates all the mechanisms observe d in glass micromodel experiments. The pressures of all phases are calculat ed explicitly so that no ad hoc rules need be introduced to describe fluid flow. In doing this we are able to reproduce many of the experimentally obs erved characteristics of three-phase flow, i.e., multiple, simultaneous dis placements, flow through thin wetting and spreading films, and double drain age events. The numerical simulations are carried out for a variety of wett ing and spreading conditions, i.e., oil-wet, water-wet, positive spreading, and negative spreading, and in all cases we see good agreement with microm odel experiments.