Role of corner interfacial area in uniqueness of capillary pressure-saturation- interfacial area relation under transient conditions

Godinez-Brizuela, Omar E.; Karadimitriou, Nikolaos; Niasar, Vahid; Shore, Craig A.; Oostrom, Mart

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.06.007

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The averaged entities of pore-scale experiments or models can be linked to continuum-scale theories if their system is larger than the representative elementary volume REV (Joekar-Niasar et al 2008;Hasan et al 2019). To ensure that the micromodel domain is statistically larger than the REV, porosity and permeability were calculated using the single-phase Navier-Stokes equation implemented in OpenFOAM Ⓡ at different fields of view but with the same statistics for the solid cylinders (Godinez-Brizuela et al 2017). The width of the micromodel was estimated to be 1.5 REV for the coarse pattern and 2 REV for The internal depth of the micromodel is uniform at 60 m. The loading and unloading experiments were performed in both micromodels using clear water and a stable inkwater mixture (water-based blue colored, Ecoline).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Process-Dependent Solute Transport in Porous Media

et al. 2021

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Solute transport under single-phase flow conditions in porous micromodels was studied using high-resolution optical imaging. Experiments examined loading (injection of ink-water solution into a clear water-filled micromodel) and unloading (injection of clear water into an ink-water filled micromodel). Statistically homogeneous and fine-coarse porous micromodels patterns were used. It is shown that the transport time scale during unloading is larger than that under loading, even in a micromodel with a homogeneous structure, so that larger values of the dispersion coefficient were obtained for transport during unloading. The difference between the dispersion values for unloading and loading cases decreased with an increase in the flow rate. This implies that diffusion is the key factor controlling the degree of difference between loading and unloading transport time scales, in the cases considered here. Moreover, the patterned heterogeneity micromodel, containing distinct sections of fine and coarse porous media, increased the difference between the transport time scales during loading and unloading processes. These results raise the question of whether this discrepancy in transport time scales for the same hydrodynamic conditions is observable at larger length and time scales.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Process-Dependent Solute Transport in Porous Media

et al. 2021

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“…That is potentially the cause of the significant 296 data scattering in the relation between the stagnant saturation and the total 297 saturation (see Fig.5 in the reference [26]). Additionally, it has been proven 298 experimentally that for a given saturation, different saturation topologies are 299 possible [18], which can lead to different stagnant saturation values.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pore-scale insights into transport and mixing in steady-state two-phase flow in porous media

Aziz

Niasar

Martínez-Ferrer

2018

International Journal of Multiphase Flow

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Hydrodynamic dispersion and mixing under two-phase flow can be found in many natural, industrial, and engineering processes such as the modified salinity water flooding (MSWF). In MSWF the injected water displaces the formation brine and will interact with the crude oil and rock to improve the oil recovery. We show throughout numerical simulations that access of the injection water to the available pore space is not homogeneous, even in homogeneous porous media, and it is controlled by the saturation topology and pore-scale velocity field.Under the steady-state two-phase flow in a homogeneous porous medium, the velocity field has a bimodal distribution. The bimodal distribution of pore-scale velocity dictates two different transport time scales spatially distributed over the stagnant and flowing regions at a given saturation topology. These distinctly different transport time scales lead to a non-Fickian transport, which cannot be captured using the conventional advection-dispersion equation.Using the volume-of-fluid method implemented in the OpenFOAM (ver. 4.0), we simulated pore-scale two-phase flow and the hydrodynamic transport at different saturations. We have investigated the impact of stagnant saturation and the tortuosity of flow pathways on the dispersion coefficient and the mass exchange rate -as the two major parameters controlling transport and mixing -under steady-state two-phase flow. At the Darcy scale, different theories such as the mobile-immobile (MIM) theory have been proposed to capture the non-Fickian transport and mixing in two-phase flow through porous media. Based on the simulation results, we assess the validity of the assumptions employed in MIM to define the stagnant saturation and mass exchange rate coefficient. The results of this research provide fresh insights into the potential impact of saturation topology on mixing between the modified salinity water and the formation brine under steady-state flow conditions, which has not been investigated and reported in the literature.Hydrodynamic dispersion and mixing in two-phase flow through porous 2 media are found in many natural, industrial, and engineering processes such 3 as contaminant transport in the vadose zone where the infiltrated water car-4 ries the contaminants and mixes with the resident water, while air has filled 5 some part of the pore space [37,4,23]. Another example is the modified-6 (or low-) salinity water flooding (MSWF) as one of the enhanced oil recovery 7 techniques, in which injection water with a tuned chemical composition is 8 injected into the reservoir filled originally with the formation brine and the 9 crude oil [31, 1,29,42]. The performance of MSWF depends on many pore-10 scale physio-chemical factors such as crude oil chemistry, formation brine and 11 injection water chemistry, temperature, and rock mineralogy, which have 12 been extensively studied [33, 2,25]. However, the larger-scale mechanical 13 factors such as transport and mixing of the modified-salinity water have not 14 been extensively studied. ...

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“…Hence, they could capture high spatial and temporal resolutions of the entire micromodel. This setup was utilized for studying flow in elongated micromodels (Karadimitriou et al 2014) and was then extended to reflected microscopy following the same visualization principles (Godinez-Brizuela et al 2017). In other setups, a long-distance microscope objective is employed to focus the emitted light from the flow, onto the detector of a camera.…”

Section: Transmitted and Reflected Microscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidics for Porous Systems: Fabrication, Microscopy and Applications

et al. 2018

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No matter how sophisticated the structures are and on what length scale the pore sizes are, fluid displacement in porous media can be visualized, captured, mimicked and optimized using microfluidics. Visualizing transport processes is fundamental to our understanding of complex hydrogeological systems, petroleum production, medical science applications and other engineering applications. Microfluidics is an ideal tool for visual observation of flow at high temporal and spatial resolution. Experiments are typically fast, as sample volume is substantially low with the use of miniaturized devices. This review first discusses the fabrication techniques for generating microfluidics devices, experimental setups and new advances in microfluidic fabrication using three-dimensional printing, geomaterials and biomaterials. We then address multiphase transport in subsurface porous media, with an emphasis on hydrology and petroleum engineering applications in the past few decades. We also cover the application of microfluidics to study membrane systems in biomedical science and particle sorting. Lastly, we explore how synergies across different disciplines can lead to innovations in this field. A number of problems that have been resolved, topics that are under investigation and cutting-edge applications that are emerging are highlighted. Keywords Microfluidics • Porous media • Flow visualization • On-a-chip applications • Lab-on-a-chip • Micromodels Alireza Gerami and Yara Alzahid have contributed equally to this manuscript.

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Role of corner interfacial area in uniqueness of capillary pressure-saturation- interfacial area relation under transient conditions

Cited by 22 publications

References 17 publications

Process-Dependent Solute Transport in Porous Media

Process-Dependent Solute Transport in Porous Media

Pore-scale insights into transport and mixing in steady-state two-phase flow in porous media

Microfluidics for Porous Systems: Fabrication, Microscopy and Applications

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