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Wang D, Liu F, Sun J, Li Y, Wang Q, Jiao Y, Song K, Wang S, Ma R. Lattice-Boltzmann simulation of Two-phase Flow in Carbonate Porous Media retrieved from Computed Microtomography. Chem Eng Sci 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2023.118514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
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2
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Study on Oil Recovery Mechanism of Polymer-Surfactant Flooding Using X-ray Microtomography and Integral Geometry. Molecules 2022; 27:molecules27238621. [PMID: 36500715 PMCID: PMC9736323 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27238621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 11/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding pore-scale morphology and distribution of remaining oil in pore space are of great importance to carry out in-depth tapping of oil potential. Taking two water-wet cores from a typical clastic reservoir in China as an example, X-ray CT imaging is conducted at different experimental stages of water flooding and polymer-surfactant (P-S) flooding by using a high-resolution X-ray microtomography. Based on X-ray micro-CT image processing, 3D visualization of rock microstructure and fluid distribution at the pore scale is achieved. The integral geometry newly developed is further introduced to characterize pore-scale morphology and distribution of remaining oil in pore space. The underlying mechanism of oil recovery by P-S flooding is further explored. The results show that the average diameter of oil droplets gradually decreases, and the topological connectivity becomes worse after water flooding and P-S flooding. Due to the synergistic effect of “1 + 1 > 2” between the strong sweep efficiency of surfactant and the enlarged swept volume of the polymer, oil droplets with a diameter larger than 124.58 μm can be gradually stripped out by the polymer-surfactant system, causing a more scattered distribution of oil droplets in pore spaces of the cores. The network-like oil clusters are still dominant when water flooding is continued to 98% of water cut, but the dominant pore-scale oil morphology has evolved from network-like to porous-type and isolated-type after P-S flooding, which can provide strong support for further oil recovery in the later stage of chemical flooding.
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3
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Determination of the spatial distribution of wetting in the pore networks of rocks. J Colloid Interface Sci 2022; 613:786-795. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.12.183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2021] [Revised: 12/27/2021] [Accepted: 12/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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4
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Characterization of Two-Phase Flow from Pore-Scale Imaging Using Fractal Geometry under Water-Wet and Mixed-Wet Conditions. ENERGIES 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/en15062036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
High resolution micro-computed tomography images for multiphase flow provide us an effective tool to understand the mechanism of fluid flow in porous media, which is not only fundamental to the understanding of macroscopic measurements but also for providing benchmark datasets to validate pore-scale modeling. In this study, we start from two datasets of pore scale imaging of two-phase flow obtained experimentally under in situ imaging conditions at different water fractional flows under water-wet and mixed-wet conditions. Then, fractal dimension, lacunarity and succolarity are used to quantify the complexity, clustering and flow capacity of water and oil phases. The results show that with the wettability of rock surface altered from water-wet to mixed-wet, the fractal dimension for the water phase increases while for the oil phase, it decreases obviously at low water saturation. Lacunarity largely depends on the degree of wettability alteration. The more uniform wetting surfaces are distributed, the more homogeneous the fluid configuration is, which indicates smaller values for lacunarity. Moreover, succolarity is shown to well characterize the wettability effect on flow capacity. The succolarity of the oil phase in the water-wet case is larger than that in the mixed-wet case while for the water phase, the succolarity value in the water-wet is small compared with that in the mixed-wet, which show a similar trend with relative permeability curves for water-wet and mixed-wet. Our study provides a perspective into the influence that phase geometry has on relative permeability under controlled wettability and the resulting phase fractal changes under different saturations that occur during multiphase flow, which allows a means to understand phase geometric changes that occur during fluid flow.
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5
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Zhang Y, Jiang F, Tsuji T. Influence of pore space heterogeneity on mineral dissolution and permeability evolution investigated using lattice Boltzmann method. Chem Eng Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2021.117048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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6
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Suzuki A, Miyazawa M, Minto JM, Tsuji T, Obayashi I, Hiraoka Y, Ito T. Flow estimation solely from image data through persistent homology analysis. Sci Rep 2021; 11:17948. [PMID: 34504173 PMCID: PMC8429714 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97222-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Topological data analysis is an emerging concept of data analysis for characterizing shapes. A state-of-the-art tool in topological data analysis is persistent homology, which is expected to summarize quantified topological and geometric features. Although persistent homology is useful for revealing the topological and geometric information, it is difficult to interpret the parameters of persistent homology themselves and difficult to directly relate the parameters to physical properties. In this study, we focus on connectivity and apertures of flow channels detected from persistent homology analysis. We propose a method to estimate permeability in fracture networks from parameters of persistent homology. Synthetic 3D fracture network patterns and their direct flow simulations are used for the validation. The results suggest that the persistent homology can estimate fluid flow in fracture network based on the image data. This method can easily derive the flow phenomena based on the information of the structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Suzuki
- Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan.
| | - Miyuki Miyazawa
- Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan
| | - James M Minto
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
| | - Takeshi Tsuji
- Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 819-0385, Japan
- International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 819-0385, Japan
| | - Ippei Obayashi
- Cyber-Physical Engineering Information Research Core (Cypher), Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
| | - Yasuaki Hiraoka
- Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, ASHBi, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
| | - Takatoshi Ito
- Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan
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7
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Effect of Saturation and Image Resolution on Representative Elementary Volume and Topological Quantification: An Experimental Study on Bentheimer Sandstone Using Micro-CT. Transp Porous Media 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-021-01571-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
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8
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Singh D, Roy S, Pant HJ, Phirani J. Solid-fluid interfacial area measurement for wettability quantification in multiphase flow through porous media. Chem Eng Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2020.116250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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9
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Diagenetic Trends of Synthetic Reservoir Sandstone Properties Assessed by Digital Rock Physics. MINERALS 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/min11020151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Quantifying interactions and dependencies among geometric, hydraulic and mechanical properties of reservoir sandstones is of particular importance for the exploration and utilisation of the geological subsurface and can be assessed by synthetic sandstones comprising the microstructural complexity of natural rocks. In the present study, three highly resolved samples of the Fontainebleau, Berea and Bentheim sandstones are generated by means of a process-based approach, which combines the gravity-driven deposition of irregularly shaped grains and their diagenetic cementation by three different schemes. The resulting evolution in porosity, permeability and rock stiffness is examined and compared to the respective micro-computer tomographic (micro-CT) scans. The grain contact-preferential scheme implies a progressive clogging of small throats and consequently produces considerably less connected and stiffer samples than the two other schemes. By contrast, uniform quartz overgrowth continuously alters the pore space and leads to the lowest elastic properties. The proposed stress-dependent cementation scheme combines both approaches of contact-cement and quartz overgrowth, resulting in granulometric, hydraulic and elastic properties equivalent to those of the respective micro-CT scans, where bulk moduli slightly deviate by 0.8%, 4.9% and 2.5% for the Fontainebleau, Berea and Bentheim sandstone, respectively. The synthetic samples can be further altered to examine the impact of mineral dissolution or precipitation as well as fracturing on various petrophysical correlations, which is of particular relevance for numerous aspects of a sustainable subsurface utilisation.
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10
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CNN-PFVS: Integrating Neural Network and Finite Volume Models to Accelerate Flow Simulation on Pore Space Images. Transp Porous Media 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-020-01466-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
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11
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Wetzel M, Kempka T, Kühn M. Hydraulic and Mechanical Impacts of Pore Space Alterations within a Sandstone Quantified by a Flow Velocity-Dependent Precipitation Approach. MATERIALS 2020; 13:ma13143100. [PMID: 32664508 PMCID: PMC7411822 DOI: 10.3390/ma13143100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2020] [Revised: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 07/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Geochemical processes change the microstructure of rocks and thereby affect their physical behaviour at the macro scale. A micro-computer tomography (micro-CT) scan of a typical reservoir sandstone is used to numerically examine the impact of three spatial alteration patterns on pore morphology, permeability and elastic moduli by correlating precipitation with the local flow velocity magnitude. The results demonstrate that the location of mineral growth strongly affects the permeability decrease with variations by up to four orders in magnitude. Precipitation in regions of high flow velocities is characterised by a predominant clogging of pore throats and a drastic permeability reduction, which can be roughly described by the power law relation with an exponent of 20. A continuous alteration of the pore structure by uniform mineral growth reduces the permeability comparable to the power law with an exponent of four or the Kozeny–Carman relation. Preferential precipitation in regions of low flow velocities predominantly affects smaller throats and pores with a minor impact on the flow regime, where the permeability decrease is considerably below that calculated by the power law with an exponent of two. Despite their complete distinctive impact on hydraulics, the spatial precipitation patterns only slightly affect the increase in elastic rock properties with differences by up to 6.3% between the investigated scenarios. Hence, an adequate characterisation of the spatial precipitation pattern is crucial to quantify changes in hydraulic rock properties, whereas the present study shows that its impact on elastic rock parameters is limited. The calculated relations between porosity and permeability, as well as elastic moduli can be applied for upscaling micro-scale findings to reservoir-scale models to improve their predictive capabilities, what is of paramount importance for a sustainable utilisation of the geological subsurface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Wetzel
- German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; (T.K.); (M.K.)
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
- Correspondence:
| | - Thomas Kempka
- German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; (T.K.); (M.K.)
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Michael Kühn
- German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; (T.K.); (M.K.)
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
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12
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Howard MP, Lequieu J, Delaney KT, Ganesan V, Fredrickson GH, Truskett TM. Connecting Solute Diffusion to Morphology in Triblock Copolymer Membranes. Macromolecules 2020. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.0c00104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael P. Howard
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Joshua Lequieu
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Kris T. Delaney
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Venkat Ganesan
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Glenn H. Fredrickson
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States
| | - Thomas M. Truskett
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
- Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
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Relationship between wetting and capillary pressure in a crude oil/brine/rock system: From nano-scale to core-scale. J Colloid Interface Sci 2020; 562:159-169. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2019] [Revised: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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14
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Liu J, Ju Y, Zhang Y, Gong W. Preferential Paths of Air-water Two-phase Flow in Porous Structures with Special Consideration of Channel Thickness Effects. Sci Rep 2019; 9:16204. [PMID: 31700014 PMCID: PMC6838087 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-52569-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Accurate understanding and predicting the flow paths of immiscible two-phase flow in rocky porous structures are of critical importance for the evaluation of oil or gas recovery and prediction of rock slides caused by gas-liquid flow. A 2D phase field model was established for compressible air-water two-phase flow in heterogenous porous structures. The dynamic characteristics of air-water two-phase interface and preferential paths in porous structures were simulated. The factors affecting the path selection of two-phase flow in porous structures were analyzed. Transparent physical models of complex porous structures were prepared using 3D printing technology. Tracer dye was used to visually observe the flow characteristics and path selection in air-water two-phase displacement experiments. The experimental observations agree with the numerical results used to validate the accuracy of phase field model. The effects of channel thickness on the air-water two-phase flow behavior and paths in porous structures were also analyzed. The results indicate that thick channels can induce secondary air flow paths due to the increase in flow resistance; consequently, the flow distribution is different from that in narrow channels. This study provides a new reference for quantitatively analyzing multi-phase flow and predicting the preferential paths of immiscible fluids in porous structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinhui Liu
- School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - Yang Ju
- State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China. .,Frontier Scientific Research Centre for Fluidized Mining of Deep Underground Resources, China University of Mining & Technology, 1 University Ave, Xuzhou, 221006, China.
| | - Yingqi Zhang
- Energy Geosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, CA94720, USA
| | - Wenbo Gong
- School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China
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15
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Zhang J, Zhang H, Lee D, Ryu S, Kim S. Microfluidic Study on the Two-Phase Fluid Flow in Porous Media During Repetitive Drainage-Imbibition Cycles and Implications to the CAES Operation. Transp Porous Media 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-019-01353-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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16
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Toward a New Generation of Two-Fluid Flow Models Based on the Thermodynamically-Constrained Averaging Theory. WATER 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/w11112260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Traditional models of two-fluid flow through porous media at the macroscale have existed for nearly a century. These phenomenological models are not firmly connected to the microscale; thermodynamic constraints are not enforced; empirical closure relations are well known to be hysteretic; fluid pressures are typically assumed to be in a local equilibrium state with fluid saturations; and important quantities such as interfacial and curvilinear geometric extents, tensions, and curvatures, known to be important from microscale studies, do not explicitly appear in traditional macroscale models. Despite these shortcomings, the traditional model for two-fluid flow in porous media has been extensively studied to develop efficient numerical approximation methods, experimental and surrogate measure parameterization approaches, and convenient pre- and post-processing environments; and they have been applied in a large number of applications from a variety of fields. The thermodynamically constrained averaging theory (TCAT) was developed to overcome the limitations associated with traditional approaches, and we consider here issues associated with the closure of this new generation of models. It has been shown that a hysteretic-free state equation exists based upon integral geometry that relates changes in volume fractions, capillary pressure, interfacial areas, and the Euler characteristic. We show an analysis of how this state equation can be parameterized with a relatively small amount of data. We also formulate a state equation for resistance coefficients that we show to be hysteretic free, unlike traditional relative permeability models. Lastly, we comment on the open issues remaining for this new generation of models.
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17
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Prediction of Porosity and Permeability Alteration Based on Machine Learning Algorithms. Transp Porous Media 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-019-01265-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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18
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Friis HA, Pedersen J, Jettestuen E, Helland JO, Prodanović M. Pore-Scale Level Set Simulations of Capillary-Controlled Displacement with Adaptive Mesh Refinement. Transp Porous Media 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-019-01238-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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19
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Armstrong RT, McClure JE, Robins V, Liu Z, Arns CH, Schlüter S, Berg S. Porous Media Characterization Using Minkowski Functionals: Theories, Applications and Future Directions. Transp Porous Media 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-018-1201-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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20
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Gao Y, Lin Q, Bijeljic B, Blunt MJ. X-ray Microtomography of Intermittency in Multiphase Flow at Steady State Using a Differential Imaging Method. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 2017; 53:10274-10292. [PMID: 30333671 PMCID: PMC6175102 DOI: 10.1002/2017wr021736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2017] [Accepted: 11/15/2017] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
We imaged the steady state flow of brine and decane in Bentheimer sandstone. We devised an experimental method based on differential imaging to examine how flow rate impacts impact the pore-scale distribution of fluids during coinjection. This allows us to elucidate flow regimes (connected, or breakup of the nonwetting phase pathways) for a range of fractional flows at two capillary numbers, Ca, namely 3.0 × 10-7 and 7.5 × 10-6. At the lower Ca, for a fixed fractional flow, the two phases appear to flow in connected unchanging subnetworks of the pore space, consistent with conventional theory. At the higher Ca, we observed that a significant fraction of the pore space contained sometimes oil and sometimes brine during the 1 h scan: this intermittent occupancy, which was interpreted as regions of the pore space that contained both fluid phases for some time, is necessary to explain the flow and dynamic connectivity of the oil phase; pathways of always oil-filled portions of the void space did not span the core. This phase was segmented from the differential image between the 30 wt % KI brine image and the scans taken at each fractional flow. Using the grey scale histogram distribution of the raw images, the oil proportion in the intermittent phase was calculated. The pressure drops at each fractional flow at low and high flow rates were measured by high-precision differential pressure sensors. The relative permeabilities and fractional flow obtained by our experiment at the mm-scale compare well with data from the literature on cm-scale samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Gao
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Qingyang Lin
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Branko Bijeljic
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Martin J. Blunt
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
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