The Dependent Clogging Dynamics and Its Impact on Porous Media Permeability Reduction

Abstract

The dynamics of fine particle entrapment, transport, and deposition within pore systems, particularly the ability of mobile fines to impair permeability within porous media, are critical to a variety of natural and manmade phenomena, impacting oil and gas recovery, slope stability, filter capacity, and the efficiency of lab-on-chip diagnostics in medical disciplines. According to the research, clogging of pore throats in the porous media is not a random process; clogged throats, in particular, modify flow conditions and promote subsequent clogging nearby which is called dependent clogging. Over the last several decades, significant efforts have been made to identify and parameterize the role of dependent clogging in permeability reduction, with studies applying a combination of physical investigation and numerical simulation to this objective. In this work, we deploy a coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method-based framework to investigate fines migration and consequent pore-throat clogging within a geologically realistic pore system extracted from an x-ray microtomographic image of a sand pack. The analysis of the simulation results revealed a spatial correlation between the clogged throats, implying that throats in close proximity became clogged dependently around the same time. Furthermore, dependent clogging was observed to be more frequent than independent clogging and it impacts system permeability more efficiently. This suggests that the distribution of clogged throats has a significant impact on the system's permeability reduction other than the total number of clogged throats.