Gas/Water Two-Phase Flow in Nanporous Shale

As mentioned in the earlier chapters, due to the comparable sizes of fluid molecules and nanopores, the transport behavior of gas and water at the nanoscale deviates from the predictions based on continuum flow theory (Javadpour et al., 2007, 2015). This deviation emphasizes the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of complex nanoconfined multiphase systems and corresponding modeling methods. Recent studies have made significant progress in understanding and modeling single-phase gas transport in shale (Civan, 2010; Fathi & Akkutlu, 2013; Wang et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2019a, 2019b) and single-phase water transport in nanopores and nanoporous media (Javadpour et al., 2015; Afsharpoor & Javadpour, 2016; Wu et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020a, 2020b). These researchers are gradually unraveling the intricate processes of single-phase transport at the nanoscale and enriching the modeling techniques that span experimental, analytical, and simulation approaches such as molecular dynamics (MD), lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), and pore-network modelling (PNM). However, the study of gas and water two-phase flow at the nanoscale remains limited, despite its significant importance in various industries.