Simulation of constant pressure steam injection in a porous medium

Steam injection is an effective technique to restore groundwater aquifers contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids. The method, traditionally used in petroleum engineering to recover crude oil residues, involves introducing the water vapor into a contaminated zone to drive contaminants out of the subsurface. In this paper an alternative multiphase flow model, called the multiphase mixture model (MMM), was applied to study the dynamic processes of steam injection into a horizontal, liquid water saturated reservoir with constant injection pressures. The MMM model provides a single set of conservation equations for all regions and thus is particularly suitable for two-phase flow and heat transfer problems in porous media with phase change. The numerical results revealed many complex transport phenomena, such as steam backflow, gravity override, and liquid recirculating flow. The advancement and shape of the steam front were scrutinized, and parametric studies by varying inlet pressures were performed to assess the effects on the steam front propagation as well as the effectiveness of contaminant recovery.