Multiphase Flow Dynamics in Porous Media

Multiphase flow in porous media encompasses the simultaneous movement of two or more immiscible fluids—commonly water, oil, gas or supercritical CO₂—through a network of interconnected pores. The interplay between capillary forces, viscous forces and wettability at the pore scale governs displacement patterns, phase trapping and large-scale transport behaviour. Key processes include snap-off and piston-like displacement, which determine the extent of fluid entrapment, and Haines jumps, rapid pore-filling events that influence the stability of displacement fronts. Advances in imaging, microfluidic modelling and data-driven simulation have shed light on the complex feedbacks between pore geometry, interfacial tension and flow rates. Understanding these interactions is essential for optimising enhanced oil recovery, designing more efficient fuel cells and electrolyzers, and ensuring the long-term security of geological CO₂ storage. Recent efforts emphasise multiscale approaches that link pore-scale phenomena to field-scale predictions, enabling improved management of water resources, hydrocarbon reservoirs and environmental remediation campaigns.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have revealed how viscous pressure gradients can suppress granular instabilities during fluid invasion into dry, hydrophobic grains. By systematically varying viscous forces, researchers have observed a transition from a single frictional finger to multiple compacted fingers advancing in a radial pattern, highlighting the role of viscous stabilisation in governing finger morphology. Time-resolved imaging of snap-off and pore-filling events using fast X-ray micro-tomography has provided pore-by-pore measurements of interface curvature and capillary pressure evolution. These experiments demonstrate that snap-off proceeds over minutes, far slower than Haines jumps, and that capillary pressure rises to a new local minimum after entrapment. They further show that imbibition fronts propagate at near-constant capillary pressure with discrete, pore-sized displacements, refining our understanding of fluid trapping and release.

Multiphase Flow Dynamics in Porous Media publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in multiphase flow dynamics in porous media across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Capillary forces: Interfacial tension forces that arise at the boundary between immiscible fluids, governing meniscus curvature and phase displacement.

Viscous forces: Resistance to flow within a fluid, proportional to its viscosity and the velocity gradient.

Snap-off: A process where a non-wetting fluid becomes disconnected and trapped by the advancing wetting phase, leading to ganglion formation.

Haines jump: A rapid pore-scale displacement event during drainage, characterised by sudden meniscus motion between pores.

Contact angle: The angle formed at the junction of fluid–fluid and fluid–solid interfaces, reflecting wettability.

Péclet number: A dimensionless ratio of advective transport rate to diffusive transport rate of a solute.

References

1. In situ characterization of heterogeneous surface wetting in porous materials. Advances in Colloid and Interface Science (2024).
2. Frictional fluid instabilities shaped by viscous forces. Nature Communications (2023).
3. Multiscale Porosity Microfluidics to Study Bacterial Transport in Heterogeneous Chemical Landscapes. Advanced Science (2024).
4. Prediction of local concentration fields in porous media with chemical reaction using a multi scale convolutional neural network. Chemical Engineering Journal (2023).