Limitations of Lattice Boltzmann Modeling of Micro-Flows in Complex Nanopores

The multiscale transport mechanism of methane in unconventional reservoirs is dominated by slip and transition flows resulting from the ultra-low permeability of micro/nano-scale pores, which requires consideration of the microscale and rarefaction effects. Traditional continuum-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) becomes problematic when modeling micro-gaseous flow in these multiscale pore networks because of its disadvantages in the treatment of cases with a complicated boundary. As an alternative, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), a special discrete form of the Boltzmann equation, has been widely applied to model the multi-scale and multi-mechanism flows in unconventional reservoirs, considering its mesoscopic nature and advantages in simulating gas flows in complex porous media. Consequently, numerous LBM models and slip boundary schemes have been proposed and reported in the literature. This study investigates the predominately reported LBM models and kinetic boundary schemes. The results of these LBM models systematically compare to existing experimental results, analytical solutions of Navier-Stokes, solutions of the Boltzmann equation, direct simulation of Monte Carlo (DSMC) and information-preservation DSMC (IP_DSMC) results, as well as the numerical results of the linearized Boltzmann equation by the discrete velocity method (DVM). The results point out the challenges and limitations of existing multiple-relaxation-times LBM models in predicting micro-gaseous flow in unconventional reservoirs.