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Fluid mechanics causes of gas migration : displacement of a yield stress fluid in a channel and onset of fluid invasion into a visco-plastic fluid Zare Bezgabadi, Marjan

Abstract

This thesis studies the buoyant miscible displacement flow of a Bingham fluid by a Newtonian fluid and the invasion of miscible and immiscible fluids into a yield stress fluid. The objective of the former study is to characterize the residual layer thickness and identify the flow regimes within the range of governing flow parameters. In the latter, the aim is to capture the invasion pressure of the invading fluids into a yield stress fluid, understand the actual invasion process and quantify the effect of yield stress and other influencing physical parameters. We start the first part of the thesis with density stable displacements. We show the different parametric effects on the residual layer thickness and present a novel and computationally efficient method for predicting the long-term behaviour of the residual wall layers. We then extend this study to density unstable displacement and show that static residual wall layers can exist for yield stresses below the minimum for density stable regimes. These layers are partially static and may also be thicker than the fully static layers encountered in density stable flows. We also find a range of hydrodynamic instabilities, which we map out parametrically, giving approximate onset criteria. The predictive method for density stable flows is extended to density unstable configurations and appears able to predict the occurrence of stable displacements. In the second part, we study invasion flows into a vertical column of yield stress fluid through a small hole. We first examined the invasion of water, using both experimental and computational methods. We find that the invasion pressure depends on yield stress of the fluid and height of the yield stress column. However, the invasion process is initially localised close to the hole. Similar results were found with glycerin solutions. Interfacial stress effects were then tested with a density-matched silicon oil and air, which resulted a non-local invasion. In summary, we find that miscible fluids penetrate locally at significantly lower invasion pressures than immiscible fluids. Finally, for both parts of the thesis, there are a number of useful consequences helping to understand the mechanisms leading to gas migration.

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