Stationary Fronts in Hetererogeneous Reservoirs

B012 STATIONARY FRONTS IN HETEROGENEOUS RESERVOIRS Abstract 1 In this paper we show that the careful study of the two-phase front can improve up-scaling techniques for two phase immiscible flows in heterogeneous reservoirs. A detailed numerical and analytical study of the dynamics of the front shows that stochastic approaches cannot neglect the viscous coupling between the pressure and saturation. A very strong interaction exists between the heterogeneity and the stability or instability of the fluid flow displacement. This coupling is responsible for a qualitative and quantitative change of the form of the large scale equations that must be accounted for