Publications

Numerical simulations of lab-scale brine-water mixing experiments

Webb, Stephen W.; Khalil, Imane K.

Laboratory-scale experiments simulating the injection of fresh water into brine in a Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) cavern were performed at Sandia National Laboratories for various conditions of injection rate and small and large injection tube diameters. The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code FLUENT was used to simulate these experiments to evaluate the predictive capability of FLUENT for brine-water mixing in an SPR cavern. The data-model comparisons show that FLUENT simulations predict the mixing plume depth reasonably well. Predictions of the near-wall brine concentrations compare very well with the experimental data. The simulated time for the mixing plume to reach the vessel wall was underpredicted for the small injection tubes but reasonable for the large injection tubes. The difference in the time to reach the wall is probably due to the three-dimensional nature of the mixing plume as it spreads out at the air-brine or oil-brine interface. The depth of the mixing plume as it spreads out along the interface was within a factor of 2 of the experimental data. The FLUENT simulation results predict the plume mixing accurately, especially the water concentration when the mixing plume reaches the wall. This parameter value is the most significant feature of the mixing process because it will determine the amount of enhanced leaching at the oil-brine interface.