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Capillary entry pressure and the leakage of gravity currents through a sloping layered permeable rock

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2009

ANDREW W. WOODS  and
ADRIAN FARCAS
ANDREW W. WOODS*
Affiliation:
BP Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0EZ, UK
ADRIAN FARCAS
Affiliation:
BP Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0EZ, UK
*
†Email address for correspondence: andy@bpi.cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

We examine the motion of a buoyant fluid injected into a water-saturated porous rock as it spreads along a thin inclined low-permeability barrier. We account for leakage of the fluid across the barrier once the current is sufficiently deep so that the pressure exceeds the capillary threshold. We show that at some distance from the source, the pressure decreases below this threshold, and all the remaining flux spreads laterally along the barrier. We examine the controls on the partitioning of the flow between the draining flux and the laterally spreading flux and also the controls on the lateral extent of the draining region for the case of an instantaneous release and a maintained release of fluid. We consider the implications of our work for the dispersal of CO2 plumes which may be sequestered in deep saline aquifers.

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Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 618 , 10 January 2009 , pp. 361 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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