Influence of the capillary and the viscous forces during the drainage process in a porous media

In this paper, we simulate an ascending air phase flow in a vertical porous channel initially saturated with a liquid phase. The numerical study is performed for large range of injected air mass flow rate from the bottom to the top. The different forces intervening in the drainage process is analyzed according to several permeabilities. The results show that for a weak gas mass flow rate, the capillary effect is dominant. In this case, the gas saturation in a porous channel is proportional to the permeability. For more important gas mass flow rate, the saturation behavior becomes inversely proportional to the permeability of the porous channel.