2015
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1420202112
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Droplet fragmentation: 3D imaging of a previously unidentified pore-scale process during multiphase flow in porous media

Abstract: Using X-ray computed microtomography, we have visualized and quantified the in situ structure of a trapped nonwetting phase (oil) in a highly heterogeneous carbonate rock after injecting a wetting phase (brine) at low and high capillary numbers. We imaged the process of capillary desaturation in 3D and demonstrated its impacts on the trapped nonwetting phase cluster size distribution. We have identified a previously unidentified pore-scale event during capillary desaturation. This pore-scale event, described a… Show more

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Cited by 153 publications
(94 citation statements)
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“…Although the pore-scale physics underlying immiscible multiphase fluid transport in porous media is essentially well understood, several recent contributions still explore and highlight interesting findings at this fundamental scale [6][7][8]. These advances contribute in important ways to filling the * sebastien.leclaire@polymtl.ca gaps of knowledge connecting the macroscopic Darcy scale to pore-scale models.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Although the pore-scale physics underlying immiscible multiphase fluid transport in porous media is essentially well understood, several recent contributions still explore and highlight interesting findings at this fundamental scale [6][7][8]. These advances contribute in important ways to filling the * sebastien.leclaire@polymtl.ca gaps of knowledge connecting the macroscopic Darcy scale to pore-scale models.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Much less emphasis has been given to the fluids' affinity to the porous media (i.e., wettability), even though wettability has a profound influence on fluid-fluid interactions in the presence of a solid surface (5)(6)(7). Despite recent advances in our ability to accurately measure wettability under reservoir conditions (8,9), and to engineer wettability in the subsurface (10)(11)(12)(13), the complex physics of wetting continues to challenge our microscopic and macroscopic descriptions (14).…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…At high flow rates, the fragmentation of large trapped ganglia has been observed in the pore space of a complex carbonate rock (23). At lower capillary numbers, the trapping of CO2 (20) and oil (21) in disconnected ganglia has been quantified in sandstones.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%