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Influence of Viscous and Capillary Forces on Residual Water in Anthracite Fracture Networks

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Abstract

A deeper understanding of the role of residual water and its influence on gas flow behavior in coal seams is a key factor to achieve enhanced coalbed methane (CBM) production. In this study, numerical simulations were performed to study the gas–water drainage displacement in different coal lithotypes (bright coal, semi-bright coal, and semi-dull coal) at various viscosity ratios (M) and capillary numbers (Ca). The results indicate that capillary and viscous forces influence the displacement stability as well as the residual water saturation. The residual water saturation remains higher in unstable displacement vs. stable displacement conditions. The residual water saturation in bright coal, semi-bright coal, and semi-dull coal ranged at 21.5–36.4%, 29.9–36.8%, and 46.4–49.6%, respectively. The performed numerical simulations showed four residual water formation mechanisms in the modeled coal fracture networks, including nonsimultaneous displacement, deflection flowrate, dead-end fractures, and by-passing. From unstable displacement to stable displacement, nonsimultaneous displacement, deflection flowrate, dead-end fracture, and by-passing accounted for 3.0%, 2.1%, 13.1%, and 20.3% of the reduction of residual water saturation, respectively. The residual water in the by-passing mechanism is easily remobilized in coal. Our study suggests that the daily gas and water production should be controlled to reach stable displacement, which is beneficial to CBM production.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41872171), Jie Bang Zhao Biao Project of Shanxi Province (20201101002), Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (E2020209074), the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province and Provincial advantage discipline III-Geological resources and Engineering (140119002). Work of David Misch was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Grant No. P-33883. The authors would like to thank Dr. Khadija Shabbiri for providing great help on English editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Coalbed Methane Resources and Reservoir Formation Process, Ministry of Education, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China

    Lei Han & Jian Shen

  2. School of Resources and Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, No. 1 Daxue Road, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu Province, China

    Lei Han & Jian Shen

  3. State Key Laboratory of Coal and CBM Co-Mining, Jincheng, 048204, China

    Lei Han & Changjiang Ji

  4. Department Applied Geosciences and Geophysics, Montanuniversitaet, 8700, Leoben, Austria

    David Misch

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Han, L., Misch, D., Shen, J. et al. Influence of Viscous and Capillary Forces on Residual Water in Anthracite Fracture Networks. Nat Resour Res 32, 603–617 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-022-10154-4

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