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Learning Pore-scale Multiphase Flow from 4D Velocimetry

arXiv cs.LG / 3/16/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper presents a multimodal learning framework that infers pore-scale multiphase flow directly from time-resolved 4D micro-velocimetry by coupling a graph-network flow simulator with a 3D U-Net for interface evolution.
  • The model uses the imaged pore geometry as a boundary constraint and updates flow velocity and multiphase interfaces iteratively at each time step, trained autoregressively on capillary-dominated data (Ca ≈ 10^-6) to capture Haines jumps.
  • The surrogate can reproduce transient, nonlocal flow perturbations over seconds of physical time, offering dramatic speedups from hours/days of direct numerical simulation to seconds of inference.
  • By enabling digital experiments, this framework provides a rapid, experimentally informed tool to explore injection conditions and pore-geometry effects relevant to subsurface carbon and hydrogen storage.

Abstract

Multiphase flow in porous media underpins subsurface energy and environmental technologies, including geological CO_2 storage and underground hydrogen storage, yet pore-scale dynamics in realistic three-dimensional materials remain difficult to characterize and predict. Here we introduce a multimodal learning framework that infers multiphase pore-scale flow directly from time-resolved four-dimensional (4D) micro-velocimetry measurements. The model couples a graph network simulator for Lagrangian tracer-particle motion with a 3D U-Net for voxelized interface evolution. The imaged pore geometry serves as a boundary constraint to the flow velocity and the multiphase interface predictions, which are coupled and updated iteratively at each time step. Trained autoregressively on experimental sequences in capillary-dominated conditions (Ca\approx10^{-6}), the learned surrogate captures transient, nonlocal flow perturbations and abrupt interface rearrangements (Haines jumps) over rollouts spanning seconds of physical time, while reducing hour-to-day--scale direct numerical simulations to seconds of inference. By providing rapid, experimentally informed predictions, the framework opens a route to ''digital experiments'' to replicate pore-scale physics observed in multiphase flow experiments, offering an efficient tool for exploring injection conditions and pore-geometry effects relevant to subsurface carbon and hydrogen storage.