Multiphase Flow in Porous Media

Multiphase flow through porous media governs critical processes in subsurface energy, carbon and hydrogen storage, groundwater systems, and resource recovery. Yet commonly used continuum-scale descriptions rely on empirical closure laws that do not explicitly account for pore architecture, fluid-interface dynamics, or deformation of the solid skeleton.

Supported by an ACS Petroleum Research Fund New Doctoral Investigator award, GIL is investigating how solid deformation reshapes pore-scale multiphase flow and transport. A central focus is the Haines jump—a rapid interface-rearrangement event that occurs when a nonwetting fluid abruptly invades a pore body. The research integrates microfluidics experiments with a deformation-enabled Lattice Boltzmann solver to resolve how changes in pore geometry affect invasion thresholds, jump dynamics, phase connectivity, fluid trapping, and transport.

Deformation-coupled Haines jump dynamics

Microfluidic devices provide controlled, optically accessible pore networks in which deformation, injection conditions, wettability, and pore geometry can be varied systematically. High-resolution experiments will be paired with Lattice Boltzmann simulations that explicitly represent moving fluid interfaces and deformation of pore boundaries. Direct comparison between experiments and simulations will enable model validation and reveal the coupled mechanisms governing Haines jumps in deformable porous materials.

From pore structure to multiphase behavior

A complementary research thrust will quantify relationships between pore-network statistics and emergent multiphase-flow behavior through an integrated workflow:

CT imaging → pore-network statistics → statistically controlled pore-network generation → 3D printing → experiments and simulations

CT scans will be used to characterize pore-size distributions, throat-size distributions, coordination, connectivity, tortuosity, and spatial correlations. These descriptors will guide the generation and 3D printing of controlled pore networks, allowing experiments and simulations to isolate how individual statistics—and combinations of statistics—govern displacement patterns, capillary instabilities, phase connectivity, and trapping.

Predictive closure laws

The ultimate goal is to develop physically informed closure laws that express continuum-scale multiphase behavior in terms of measurable pore-scale parameters and deformation state. Target relationships include:

• Capillary pressure–saturation behavior,
• Relative permeability,
• Residual phase saturation, and
• Deformation-dependent trapping and transport.

These closure laws will provide a pathway from pore-scale mechanisms and statistical structure to predictive reservoir- and continuum-scale models.