Abstract: A modelling method having application to petroleum production, soil cleaning, etc. for optimizing faster and more realistically the displacement conditions, in a porous medium wettable by a first fluid (water for example), of a mixture of fluids including this wetting fluid, another, non-wetting fluid (oil for example) and a gas.

Abstract: The invention concerns a method comprising experimentally determining the variation curve of capillary pressure in pores on the basis of saturation with respect to liquid phases, modelling the pores of the porous environment by capillary distribution with fractal distribution while taking into account in the case of a three-phase water (wetting fluid)-oil-gas mixture for example stratification of the constituents inside the pores, with water in contact with the walls, gas in the centre and oil forming an intervening layer, determining, on the basis of said capillary pressure curve, values of fractal dimension corresponding to a series of given values of saturation relative to the liquid phase, modelling hysteresis effects modifying the mobile saturation levels of fluids actually displaced in the sample which vary in the course of drainage and imbibition cycles, modelling relative permeability levels directly in the form of analytical expressions depending on the different values of fractal dimension obtained

Abstract: The invention is used to manufacture an inhomogeneous medium whose porosity and permeability undergo rapid transitions from one point to another of its volume, by juxtaposing different materials without creating a barrier. Such a transition is made by juxtaposing a first material and a second material with a different porosity to the first. One of them can be a rock sample such as sandstone for example, the other can be a composite material obtained by agglomerating pyrex powder for example, the whole being heated according to a specific temperature cycle up to a temperature (TR) lower than the melting point of the two materials but sufficient to achieve partial melting of one of the materials at the interface with the other material, but without formation of a continuous or discontinuous capillary barrier between them, or an interzone with preferred passage for fluids. Thus, different composite materials can be juxtaposed to constitute the inhomogeneous medium.

Abstract: Modelling method for optimizing faster and more realistically the displacement conditions, in a porous medium wettable by a first fluid (water for example), of a mixture of fluids including this wetting fluid and at least another fluid (oil and possibly gas).