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Study of gas slippage factor in anisotropic porous media using the lattice Boltzmann method

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Abstract

In unconventional reservoir rocks, pore anisotropy and gas high Knudsen number (Kn) effect are prominent, while gas slippage factor is a crucial parameter to evaluate their apparent permeability. To analyze the correlation of gas slippage factor with pore anisotropy of porous media and Kn, two-dimensional bundle models and anisotropic porous media with same characteristic length were skillfully constructed in this work. A multi-relaxation-time Lattice Boltzmann model combining diffusive reflection boundary condition and Bosanquet-type viscosity model was applied to simulate gas high-Kn flow (Kn = 0.05–0.53) in them. The results showed that Kn and pore-scale anisotropy jointly determine gas slippage factor of anisotropic porous media, which has nothing to do with porosity, specific surface area, and intrinsic permeability in nature. Pore-scale anisotropy leads to the distinct nonlinear changes of gas slippage factor with Kn. When pore-scale anisotropy factor is between 5.37 and 14.58, gas slippage factor of porous media is positively correlated with Kn. But as pore-scale anisotropy factor is in a range from 1.0 to 5.37, gas slippage factor decreases with an increase of Kn. In addition, gas slippage factor of porous media increases with an increase of pore-scale anisotropy as Kn is in a range of 0.18 to 0.53. This work further improves the understanding of gas slippage factor and gas high-Kn effect in anisotropic porous media.

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Funding

This work is financially supported by the Science and Technology Major Project of PetroChina (No. 2016E-06) and Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1562217).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Exploration and Development Research Institute, PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Tao Li, Qian Li & Xian Peng

  2. PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, 610051, China

    Yong Hu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

    Min Li

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  1. Tao Li
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Correspondence to Tao Li or Qian Li.

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Li, T., Hu, Y., Li, Q. et al. Study of gas slippage factor in anisotropic porous media using the lattice Boltzmann method. Comput Geosci 25, 179–189 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-020-09997-8

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