LBM Simulation of Viscous Fingering Phenomenon in Immiscible Displacement of Two Fluids in Porous Media

This article presents the lattice Boltzmann simulation of viscous fingering phenomenon in immiscible displacement of two fluids in porous media. Such phenomenon generally takes place when a less viscous fluid is used to displace a more viscous fluid, and it can be found in many industrial fields. Dimensionless quantities, such as capillary number, Bond number and viscosity ratio between displaced fluid and displacing fluid are introduced to illustrate the effects of capillary force, viscous force, and gravity on the fluid behaviour. The surface wettability, which has an impact on the finger pattern, is also considered in the simulation. The numerical procedure is validated against the experiment about viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell. The displacement efficiency is investigated using the parameter, areal sweep efficiency. The present simulation shows an additional evidence to demonstrate that the lattice Boltzmann method is a useful method for simulating some multiphase flow problems in porous media.