Rheology of High-Capillary Number Flow in Porous Media

Abstract

Immiscible fluids flowing at high capillary numbers in porous media may be characterized by an effective viscosity. We demonstrate that the effective viscosity is well described by the Lichtenecker-Rother equation. The exponent $\alpha$ in this equation takes either the value 1 or 0.6 in two- and 0.5 in three-dimensional systems depending on the pore geometry. Our arguments are based on analytical and numerical methods.

5 pages 4 figures