On the Viscous Crossflow During the Foam Displacement in Two-Layered Porous Media

Abstract

Foam flow in porous media increased the scientific community’s attention due to several potential industrial applications, including remediation of contaminated aquifers, soil remediation, acid diversion, and hydrocarbon recovery. Natural reservoirs typically have fractured and multi-layered structures. We investigate an immiscible incompressible two-phase foam flow in an internally homogeneous two-layered porous medium with different porosities and absolute permeabilities. For our analysis, we extended the previous result, evidencing that the presence of foam induces the existence of a single flow front in both layers. Using the traveling wave solution, we classify the foam flow depending on the absolute permeability and the porosity ratio between layers. We show that the mass crossflow between layers is connected to the relative position of the flow front in these layers and that the porosity difference between layers impacts the mass crossflow. All analytical estimates were supported by direct numerical simulations.