A Multi-Scale Investigation of Pore Structure Impact on the Mobilization of Trapped Oil by Surfactant Injection

Oughanem, Rezki; Youssef, S.; Bauer, Daniela; Peysson, Yannick; Maire, Éric; Vizika, O.

doi:10.1007/s11242-015-0542-5

Cited by 47 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The cluster size distribution follows a power law with a slight deviation for larger ganglia sizes for all saturations. Similar results have been observed in [21]. with t h being the time for each experiment that the tracer requires to propagate in half of the pore space containing only water before the tracer injection.…”

Section: Saturation Profilessupporting

confidence: 84%

New insights into tracer propagation in partially saturated porous media

Leontidis

Youssef

Bauer

2020

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

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This work deals with the influence of partial saturation on the transport process of a passive tracer. Transport experiments were done in a water-wet glass micromodel combined with specific optical techniques. Full water saturation was achieved by injecting initially the background solution and then the tracer, whereas for the partial saturation conditions, the micromodel was initially saturated with oil, and then sequential the background solution and the tracer were injected at the same flow rate. We have shown that in the investigated range of water saturations it exists a transition in the oil ganglia structure and size. For high water saturations oil ganglia have one or two pores in size, however for lower water saturations they comprise an important number of pores. Transport strongly depends on the size distribution of the oil ganglia as they create large percolating paths and stagnant zones. We also showed the existence of two different types of stagnant zones: zones accessible by diffusion into pores and zones only accessible by spatially limited diffusion in films. The major advantage of using glass micromodels lies in the fact that dispersion coefficients can be computed from concentrations averaged over the pore space or from concentrations at the outlet and simultaneously from spatial concentration profiles. Curves were fitted using the Advection–Dispersion Equation (ADE) with adequate boundary conditions. The fitting quality of the temporal evolution of the average and outlet concentration was very good. However, fitting of the concentration profiles could only be done for the higher water saturations. This is due to the fact that the Representative Elementary Volume (REV) of lower water saturations is larger than the micromodel. The results show that fitting the breakthrough curve in order to determine the dispersion coefficient in a partially saturated porous medium might be misleading. Indeed, when fitting the breakthrough curves we were able to compute a dispersion coefficient even in the case where the REV of the water saturation is larger than the micromodel. Consequently, the knowledge of the local concentration profiles as a function of time is necessary as it provides an additional information on the spatio-temporal behavior of the transport process and therefor a supplementary constraint of the fitting procedure. Finally, we observed a time dependent dispersion coefficient in the regime where oil ganglia comprise several pores. This fact might be attributed to the non-Gaussian nature of the transport.

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Section: Saturation Profilessupporting

confidence: 84%

New insights into tracer propagation in partially saturated porous media

Leontidis

Youssef

Bauer

2020

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

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“…All types of flow have been observed experimentally in model porous media Payatakes, 1995, 1999;Tsakiroglou et al, 2007;Tallakstad et al, 2009;Krummel et al, 2013;Armstrong et al, 2016) as well as in real porous media (Van de Merwe and Nicol, 2009;Georgiadis et al, 2013;Oughanem et al, 2015;Rücker et al, 2015).…”

Section: The Concept Of Decomposition Into Prototype Flows (Deprof)mentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Apart from laboratory studies, virtual studies, implementing dynamic pore network simulations Payatakes, 1996 andAlGharbi and Blunt, 2005;Nguyen et al, 2006), or lattice Boltzmann methods (Pan et al, 2004;Ghassemi and Pak, 2011;Ramstad et al, 2012;Armstrong et al, 2016), have also addressed disconnected-oil flow modes. With recent advances in imaging technology, these flows are observed in real porous media as well (Georgiadis et al, 2013;Oughanem et al, 2015;Rücker et al, 2015). The observed flow structures show a significant and À presumably À systematic mutation ranging from practically no oil-flow, to large and small oil ganglion dynamics, to drop traffic and connected pathway flow mixtures, depending À primary À on the flow conditions and À secondary À on the physicochemical, size and network configuration of the oil-water-p.m. system Payatakes, 1995 and1999;Krummel et al, 2013;Armstrong et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Oil Fragmentation, Interfacial Surface Transport and Flow Structure Maps for Two-Phase Flow in Model Pore Networks. Predictions Based on Extensive, DeProF Model Simulations

Valavanides

2018

Oil & Gas Science and Technology - Rev. IFP Energies nouvel

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-In general, macroscopic two-phase flows in porous media form mixtures of connectedand disconnected-oil flows. The latter are classified as oil ganglion dynamics and drop traffic flow, depending on the characteristic size of the constituent fluidic elements of the non-wetting phase, namely, ganglia and droplets. These flow modes have been systematically observed during flow within model pore networks as well as real porous media. Depending on the flow conditions and on the physicochemical, size and network configuration of the system (fluids and porous medium), these flow modes occupy different volume fractions of the pore network. Extensive simulations implementing the DeProF mechanistic model for steady-state, one-dimensional, immiscible twophase flow in typical 3D model pore networks have been carried out to derive maps describing the dependence of the flow structure on capillary number, Ca, and flow rate ratio, r. The model is based on the concept of decomposition into prototype flows. Implementation of the DeProF algorithm, predicts key bulk and interfacial physical quantities, fully describing the interstitial flow structure: ganglion size and ganglion velocity distributions, fractions of mobilized/stranded oil, specific surface area of oil/water interfaces, velocity and volume fractions of mobilized and stranded interfaces, oil fragmentation, etc. The simulations span 5 orders of magnitude in Ca and r. Systems with various viscosity ratios and intermediate wettability have been examined. Flow of the nonwetting phase in disconnected form is significant and in certain cases of flow conditions the dominant flow mode. Systematic flow structure mutations with changing flow conditions have been identified. Some of them surface-up on the macroscopic scale and can be measured e.g. the reduced pressure gradient. Other remain in latency within the interstitial flow structure e.g. the volume fractions of À or fractional flows of oil through À connected-disconnected flows. Deeper within the disconnected-oil flow, the mutations between ganglion dynamics and drop traffic flow prevail. Mutations shift and/or become pronounced with viscosity disparity. They are more evident over variables describing the interstitial transport properties of process than variables describing volume fractions. This characteristic behavior is attributed to the interstitial balance between capillarity and bulk viscosity. Mean mobilization probability of i-class ganglia S 2.3 IFP Energies nouvelles International Conference Rencontres Scientifiques d'IFP Energies nouvellesNumber density of i-class ganglia S (15)Number of pore unit cells occupied by each i-class ganglion P

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“…Furthermore, understanding the relations between scales has significant scientific and practical implications. Some studies have focused on finding links between macroscopic processes and pore-scale air-water displacements in simple granular media (DiCarlo et al, 2003;Grapsas and Shokri, 2014), packed glass beads (Moebius and Or, 2014b), or oil-water displacements in cemented porous material Andrew et al, 2015;Oughanem et al, 2015;Bultreys et al, 2015). Scaling can help to determine the soil parameters capable of predicting the long-term fate of pollutants and fluxes of water, heat, solutes, and gases at different scales (Pachepsky et al, 2003).…”

Section: P 2 Of 12mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pressure Jumps during Drainage in Macroporous Soils

Soto

Paradelo

Corral

et al. 2017

Vadose Zone Journal

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Core Ideas Large pressure jumps occur in macroporous soils during drainage. Jumps result from the fast entrance of a fluid phase into macropores. The entrance occurs after a break in the capillary shield surrounding macropores. Scaling factors of pressure jump sizes may differ from the Haines jumps. Discontinuous air–water displacement at the pore scale (from 10−5 to 10−3 m) affects fluid invasion in porous media at the core scale (10−3 to 1 m). Understanding of this effect is essential to upscale flow processes. In this study we used the analysis of pressure jumps to propose an upscaling mechanism. Large pressure jumps occur during drainage in macroporous structured soils; we suggest a hypothesis for their occurrence. Drainage experiments in packed sand and structured soils enclosing large pores showed large jumps (∼5‐hPa peak pressure). Large jumps resulted from a pressure relaxation process that first initiates from pore‐scale air–water displacements and then expands to larger scales. We found that the power‐law exponents for the distribution of the size of large jumps found in structured soil are greater than the typical values reported for Haines jumps in packed granular porous media. The difference in the exponent suggests that the magnitude of displacements occurring in structured soil has different scaling factors than in simple media. A mechanism for this change of scale is proposed on the basis of the large contrast between pore throat and matrix in macroporous soil. The mechanism consists of a fast pressure relaxation in the macropores triggered by a break in the capillary shield at the pore throat. These findings contribute to an explanation of the scaling relations of air–water displacements in complex porous media and unveil links between the soil structure and flow of fluids.

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A Multi-Scale Investigation of Pore Structure Impact on the Mobilization of Trapped Oil by Surfactant Injection

Cited by 47 publications

References 29 publications

New insights into tracer propagation in partially saturated porous media

New insights into tracer propagation in partially saturated porous media

Oil Fragmentation, Interfacial Surface Transport and Flow Structure Maps for Two-Phase Flow in Model Pore Networks. Predictions Based on Extensive, DeProF Model Simulations

Pressure Jumps during Drainage in Macroporous Soils

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