Effects of shear-thinning fluids on residual oil formation in microfluidic pore networks

Castro, Antonio Rodríguez de; Oostrom, Mart; Shokri, Nima

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2016.03.027

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…More detail about the experimental procedure can be found in Rodríguez de Castro et al . 35, 36 . We have quantified the distribution of the trapped blobs of the defending fluid obtained by the simulation and experiment (results presented in Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights on the complex dynamics of two-phase flow in porous media under intermediate-wet conditions

Rabbani

Niasar

Pak

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Multiphase flow in porous media is important in a number of environmental and industrial applications such as soil remediation, CO2 sequestration, and enhanced oil recovery. Wetting properties control flow of immiscible fluids in porous media and fluids distribution in the pore space. In contrast to the strong and weak wet conditions, pore-scale physics of immiscible displacement under intermediate-wet conditions is less understood. This study reports the results of a series of two-dimensional high-resolution direct numerical simulations with the aim of understanding the pore-scale dynamics of two-phase immiscible fluid flow under intermediate-wet conditions. Our results show that for intermediate-wet porous media, pore geometry has a strong influence on interface dynamics, leading to co-existence of concave and convex interfaces. Intermediate wettability leads to various interfacial movements which are not identified under imbibition or drainage conditions. These pore-scale events significantly influence macro-scale flow behaviour causing the counter-intuitive decline in recovery of the defending fluid from weak imbibition to intermediate-wet conditions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights on the complex dynamics of two-phase flow in porous media under intermediate-wet conditions

Rabbani

Niasar

Pak

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…The xanthan gum powders were progressively dissolved in water while gently mixing with a custom‐made overhead device. Once prepared, the polymer solution was characterized by means of a stress controlled rheometer (ARG2, TA Instruments) equipped with cone‐plate geometry at a constant temperature of 19°C ± 1, following a procedure previously presented in the literature [ Rodríguez de Castro et al ., ]. The obtained rheograms are provided as supporting information (supporting information Figure S3).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The shear‐thinning behavior of semidilute polymer solutions widely used in EOR and soil remediation is commonly represented by the empirical Carreau model [ Carreau , ] based on molecular network theory [ Sorbie et al ., ; López et al ., ; Rodríguez de Castro et al ., ]. The Carreau equation is often presented as

\frac{μ - μ_{\infty}}{μ_{0} - μ_{\infty}} = {[1 + {true(λ \dot{γ} true)}^{2}]}^{\frac{n - 1}{2}}

, where

μ

is the viscosity at a given shear rate

\dot{γ}

μ_{0}

, and

μ_{\infty}

are the zero shear rate and infinite shear rate viscosities, respectively, n is the power‐law index, and

λ

is the time constant.…”

Section: Predicting the Flow Of Yield Stress Fluids And Carreau Fluidmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To do such calculation from the constitutive equation of the fluid, an apparent shear rate in the porous medium has to be determined first. The apparent shear rate

{\overset{γ}{true}}_{p m}

of shear‐thinning fluids flowing through a porous medium can be defined by dividing the mean velocity u by a characteristic microscopic length of the porous media [ Chauveteau , ; Sorbie et al ., ; Perrin et al ., ; Tosco et al ., ; Rodríguez de Castro et al ., ]. This microscopic length is usually taken as

\sqrt{K ɛ}

with

ɛ

being the porosity of the porous medium.…”

Section: Predicting the Flow Of Yield Stress Fluids And Carreau Fluidmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For these reasons, the flow of shear‐thinning fluids in porous media, and in particular that of yield stress fluids, has become a field of great research interest [ Chevalier et al ., ; Coussot , ; Talon et al ., ; Rodríguez de Castro et al ., , ]. However, although recent advances have been made [ Chevalier et al ., ], obtaining a macroscopic law to predict pressure drop as a function of flow rate has proved to be a stumbling‐block.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Flow of yield stress and Carreau fluids through rough‐walled rock fractures: Prediction and experiments

Castro

Radilla

2017

Water Resources Research

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Many natural phenomena in geophysics and hydrogeology involve the flow of non‐Newtonian fluids through natural rough‐walled fractures. Therefore, there is considerable interest in predicting the pressure drop generated by complex flow in these media under a given set of boundary conditions. However, this task is markedly more challenging than the Newtonian case given the coupling of geometrical and rheological parameters in the flow law. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a simple method to predict the flow of commonly used Carreau and yield stress fluids through fractures. To do so, an expression relating the “in situ” shear viscosity of the fluid to the bulk shear‐viscosity parameters is obtained. Then, this “in situ” viscosity is entered in the macroscopic laws to predict the flow rate‐pressure gradient relations. Experiments with yield stress and Carreau fluids in two replicas of natural fractures covering a wide range of injection flow rates are presented and compared to the predictions of the proposed method. Our results show that the use of a constant shift parameter to relate “in situ” and bulk shear viscosity is no longer valid in the presence of a yield stress or a plateau viscosity. Consequently, properly representing the dependence of the shift parameter on the flow rate is crucial to obtain accurate predictions. The proposed method predicts the pressure drop in a rough‐walled fracture at a given injection flow rate by only using the shear rheology of the fluid, the hydraulic aperture of the fracture, and the inertial coefficients as inputs.

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Non‐Darcian flow experiments of shear‐thinning fluids through rough‐walled rock fractures

Castro

Radilla

2016

Water Resources Research

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Understanding non‐Darcian flow of shear‐thinning fluids through rough‐walled rock fractures is of vital importance in a number of industrial applications such as hydrogeology or petroleum engineering. Different laws are available to express the deviations from linear Darcy law due to inertial pressure losses. In particular, Darcy's law is often extended through addition of quadratic and cubic terms weighted by two inertial coefficients depending on the strength of the inertia regime. The relations between the effective shear viscosity of the fluid and the apparent viscosity in porous media when inertial deviations are negligible were extensively studied in the past. However, only recent numerical works have investigated the superposition of both inertial and shear‐thinning effects, finding that the same inertial coefficients obtained for non‐Darcian Newtonian flow applied in the case of shear‐thinning fluids. The objective of this work is to experimentally validate these results, extending their applicability to the case of rough‐walled rock fractures. To do so, flow experiments with aqueous polymer solutions have been conducted using replicas of natural fractures, and the effects of polymer concentration, which determine the shear rheology of the injected fluid, have been evaluated. Our findings show that the experimental pressure loss‐flow rate data for inertial flow of shear‐thinning fluids can be successfully predicted from the empirical parameters obtained during non‐Darcian Newtonian flow and Darcian shear‐thinning flow in a given porous medium.

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Effects of shear-thinning fluids on residual oil formation in microfluidic pore networks

Cited by 40 publications

References 51 publications

New insights on the complex dynamics of two-phase flow in porous media under intermediate-wet conditions

New insights on the complex dynamics of two-phase flow in porous media under intermediate-wet conditions

Flow of yield stress and Carreau fluids through rough‐walled rock fractures: Prediction and experiments

Non‐Darcian flow experiments of shear‐thinning fluids through rough‐walled rock fractures

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