Muskat-Leverett two-phase flow in thin cylindric porous media: Asymptotic approach

TL;DR

This paper develops an asymptotic model for two-phase flow in thin cylindrical porous media, simplifying the complex 3D problem into a 1D model by analyzing the behavior as the cylinder's thickness approaches zero.

Contribution

It introduces a novel asymptotic approach for Muskat-Leverett flow in thin cylinders, deriving simplified 1D models based on parameter regimes and providing rigorous estimates.

Findings

Two distinct asymptotic regimes identified based on parameters lpha and eta.

Asymptotic approximations constructed for pressures, saturations, and velocities.

The 1D model captures the essential flow behavior in the thin-cylinder limit.

Abstract

A reduced-dimensional asymptotic modelling approach is presented for the analysis of two-phase flow in a thin cylinder with aperture of order $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon),$ where $\varepsilon$ is a small positive parameter. We consider a nonlinear Muskat-Leverett two-phase flow model expressed in terms of a fractional flow formulation and Darcy's law with a saturation and the reduced pressure as unknown. We assume that the capillary pressure is non-singular and neglect the acceleration of gravity in Darcy's law. Given flows seep through the lateral surface of the cylinder. This exchange process leads to a non-homogeneous Neumann boundary condition with an intensity factor $\varepsilon^\alpha$ $(\alpha \ge 1)$ which controls the mass transport.Furthermore, the absolute permeability tensor comprises an intensity coefficient $\varepsilon^\beta,$ $\beta \in \Bbb R,$ in the transversal directions. The asymptotic behaviour of the solution is studied as $\varepsilon \to 0,$ i.e. when the thin cylinder shrinks into an interval. Two qualitatively distinct cases are discovered in the asymptotic behavior of the solution: $\alpha =1 \ \text{and} \ \beta <2,$ and $\alpha> \beta -1 \ \text{and} \ \alpha >1.$ In each of these cases, the asymptotic approximations are constructed for the pressures, saturations and velocities of these flows, and the corresponding asymptotic estimates are proved in various norms, including energy and uniform pointwise norms. Depending on the values of the parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta,$ the first terms of the asymptotics are solutions to the corresponding nonlinear elliptic-parabolic system of two differential equations, which is a one-dimensional model of the Muskat-Leverett two-phase flow.