Simpleware Case Study: Digital Rock – Multiphase Flow Through Porous Media

Synopsys and Pöyry AMS have recently joined forces to offer a joint solution capable of treating this class of flow for a variety of rock types: sandstone, limestone, etc. Synopsys’ Simpleware’s unique meshing technology based on digitizing millions-of-pixel rock samples is combined with Pöyry’s TransAT CFD, a powerful CFD tool dedicated to capillary-driven multi-fluid flows.

This case study involved study of the flow of oil through Berea sandstone. This example was chosen as an early proof-of-concept, with the idea that future work and collaborations will explore a wider range of geological samples for multiphase rock segmentation. The workflow for this project is as follows:

• the Simpleware mesher provides a very high quality STL file describing the pores
• the STL is then loaded within TransAT UI to read the files

This process involves importing a stack of 2D images to Simpleware ScanIP, before using a median filter to remove image noise. The software’s image processing tools are then applied to crop the data to a sub-sample, and a threshold tool is used to select pores. Island removal then creates a single connected region and exports a watertight STL file of the pore segmentation.

The joint workflow with Synopsys Simpleware and Pöyry AMS shows the benefits of a fast and accurate method for modeling porous media and carrying out multiphase simulation. The particular example of the Berea sandstone discussed here is notable for showing the insights into oil flow that can be obtained using this combined solution. Given the high value of these workflows for oil production and oil recovery, this efficient method makes simulation of pore-scale multiphase flow more accessible to industry.