Spontaneous imbibition of water and determination of effective contact angles in the Eagle Ford Shale Formation using neutron imaging

DiStefano, Victoria H.; Cheshire, Michael C.; McFarlane, Joanna; Kolbus, L. M.; Hale, Richard; Perfect, Edmund; Bilheux, Hassina Z.; Santodonato, Louis J.; Hussey, Daniel S.; Jacobson, David L.; LaManna, Jacob M.; Bingham, Philip R.; Starchenko, Vitalii; Anovitz, Lawrence M.

doi:10.1007/s12583-017-0801-1

Cited by 33 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…This is comparable to the Washburn solution and core‐scale observations and can explain the faster water imbibition through fractures, although they are not the elements with the maximum capillary pressure. In other words, although the matrix pores are associated with a higher capillary force, the higher pore size and permeability facilitate the water intake through the microfracture network.…”

Section: Workflow Of Numerical Simulationsupporting

confidence: 83%

Modelling shale spontaneous water intake using semi‐analytical and numerical approaches

Mohammadmoradi

Kantzas

2018

Can J Chem Eng

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Shale matrix water intake during hydraulic fracturing is considered undesirable due to the high volume of unrestrained water loss; however, it is also rewarding because it can reduce the possibility of groundwater contamination. The water intake also plays a dual role in changing the shale production performance; water imbibition into matrix pores can dramatically reduce the effective permeability and, at the same time, might enhance hydrocarbon production by creating adsorption-induced micro-fractures. Quantifying the formation intake capacity and its breadth is the key to optimizing fracturing operation, flowback, and production strategy. This work entails complementary semi-analytical and numerical analyses and investigates the effects of basic rock and fluid properties, wettability heterogeneity, and pore space connectivity on the shale imbibition characteristics. We consider a semi-analytical formulation of the spontaneous water imbibition, together with model results and validations, and try to provide a framework to link the capillary imbibition capacity/rate to lab-scale observations. The core-scale measurements provide input for a sensitivity study on the matrix imbibition capacity in six shale plays in North America. The results suggest that rock permeability, hydraulic tortuosity, and initial and residual hydrocarbon saturations are among the most influential factors on the spontaneous water intake during shut-in periods. Direct quasi-static simulations are then conducted through a submicron tomography image of the Eagle Ford shale, and two-phase pore-level fluid occupancies are reconstructed during spontaneous and forced imbibition processes. According to the numerical results, the presence of continuous organic matter laminae can lower the destructive effects of water imbibition on the hydrocarbon permeability.

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Section: Workflow Of Numerical Simulationsupporting

confidence: 83%

Modelling shale spontaneous water intake using semi‐analytical and numerical approaches

Mohammadmoradi

Kantzas

2018

Can J Chem Eng

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“…Imbibition tests have been widely used in previous studies as a first characterization of the samples (Figure 3). Semianalytical solutions and experimental results demonstrated that the front progression is known to scale with the square root of time (Middleton et al, 2005;Kang et al, 2013;Cheng et al, 2015;DiStefano et al, 2017). From the saturation index of the sample, capillary pressures may be estimated vs. the sample saturation and a relative permeability calculated (Li and Horne, 2005;Haugen et al, 2014;Blunt, 2016, 2018).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neutron imaging in geomaterials historically started more than 20 years ago and from the very beginning focused on flow in porous media (Jasti et al, 1987;Lanza et al, 1991;Degueldre et al, 1996). One of the main interests has been put on imbibition tests, performed either with time-lapse 2D radiography or 3D tomography (Masschaele et al, 2004;Middleton et al, 2005;Carminati et al, 2007;Cnudde et al, 2008;Hall et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2010;Trtik et al, 2011;Sedighi-Gilani et al, 2012;Derluyn et al, 2013;Kang et al, 2013;Cheng et al, 2015;DiStefano et al, 2017). Additional geologically relevant fields were investigated such as deformed and cracked samples (Hall, 2013;Tudisco et al, 2015Tudisco et al, , 2019, drying concrete (De Beer et al, 2004;Poulikakos et al, 2013;Toropovs et al, 2015;Dauti et al, 2018) or fossils (Dawson et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutron Imaging of Cadmium Sorption and Transport in Porous Rocks

et al. 2019

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Understanding fluid flow in rocks is crucial to quantify many natural processes such as ground water flow and naturally triggered seismicity, as well as engineering questions such as displacement of contaminants, the eligibility of subsurface waste storage, geothermal energy usage, oil and gas recovery and artificially induced seismicity. Two key parameters that control the variability of fluid flow and the movement of dissolved chemical species are (i) the local hydraulic conductivity, and (ii) the local sorption properties of the dissolved chemical species by the solid matrix. These parameters can be constrained through tomography imaging of rock samples subjected to fluid injection under constrained flow rate and pressure. The neutron imaging technique is ideal to explore fluid localization in porous materials due to the high but variable sensitivity of neutrons to the different hydrogen isotopes. However, until recently, this technique was underused in geology because of its large acquisition time. With the improved acquisition times of newly setup neutron beamlines, it has become easier to study fluid flow. In the current set of experiments, we demonstrate the feasibility of in-situ 2D and 3D time-lapse neutron imaging of fluid and pollutant percolation in rocks, in particular that of cadmium salt. Cadmium is a hazardous compound that is found in many electronic devices, including batteries and is a common contaminant in soil and groundwater. It also exhibits higher contrast in neutron attenuation with respect to heavy water, and is therefore an ideal tracer. Time-lapse 2D radiographies and 3D neutron tomographies of the samples were acquired on two neutron beamlines (ILL, France and SINQ, Switzerland). We performed two sets of experiments, imbibition and injection experiments, where we imaged in-situ flow properties, such as local permeability and interactions between cadmium and the solid rock matrix. Our results indicate that even within these cm-scale porous rocks, cadmium transport follows preferential pathways, and locally interacts within the limestone samples. Our results demonstrate that the use of neutron imaging provides additional insights on subsurface transport of pollutants.

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“…Particularly, the implemented approaches were useful for mapping fluid flow as a function of time, wetting phase (water) saturation dynamically and at the end of the experiments. In these regards, the methodology finds uses to the study of spontaneous and forced imbibition gas recovery (e.g., Di Stefano et al, 2017), irreducible water estimation useful for petrophysical evaluations and oil recovery planning (e.g., Treiber and Owens, 1972;Salathiel, 1973;Morrow and Melrose, 1991). Another important application of this method could be the evaluation of moisture inside building stones (e.g., Cnudde et al, 2008).…”

Section: Methodology Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of Dynamic Neutron Radiography and Integrated X-Ray and Neutron Tomography in Porous Carbonate Reservoir Rocks

et al. 2019

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The textural and geometrical properties of the pore networks (i.e., such as pore size distribution, pore shape, connectivity, and tortuosity) provides a primary control on the fluid storage and migration of geofluids within porous carbonate reservoirs. These properties are highly variable because of primary depositional conditions, diagenetic processes and deformation. This issue represents an important challenge for the characterization and exploitation plan in this type of reservoirs. In this study, the complementary properties of neutrons and X-ray experiments are carried out to better understand the effects of pore network properties on the hydraulic behavior of porous carbonates. Neutrons have unique properties and are particularly suitable for this study due to the sensitivity of neutrons to hydrogen-based fluids. The used methodology combines dynamic neutron radiography (NR), integrated X-ray and neutron tomography (XCT, NCT), and computational fluid dynamics simulations (lattice-Boltzmann method) of porous carbonate reservoir analogs from central and southern Italy. Dynamic 2D NR images provide information regarding the fluid transport and the wetting front dynamics related to the effect of heterogeneities (e.g., fractures and deformation bands) at the microscale. The combination of NCT (dry and wet samples) and XCT (dry), generates more information regarding the effective pore space contribution to fluid flow. The fluid flow simulations generate information about the connected pore network and the permeability evaluated rock sample at saturated condition.

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Spontaneous imbibition of water and determination of effective contact angles in the Eagle Ford Shale Formation using neutron imaging

Cited by 33 publications

References 43 publications

Modelling shale spontaneous water intake using semi‐analytical and numerical approaches

Modelling shale spontaneous water intake using semi‐analytical and numerical approaches

Neutron Imaging of Cadmium Sorption and Transport in Porous Rocks

Implementation of Dynamic Neutron Radiography and Integrated X-Ray and Neutron Tomography in Porous Carbonate Reservoir Rocks

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