Viscous Fingering Dynamics and Flow Regimes of Miscible Displacements in a Sealed Hele-Shaw Cell

Abstract

Miscible viscous fingering occurs when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one in porous media or a Hele–Shaw cell. Such flow instabilities are of particular interest in a variety of applications in flows and displacements in subsurface energy and environment systems. In this study, we investigate the miscible viscous fingering dynamics experimentally using water to displace glycerol in a sealed Hele–Shaw cell with two wells located in it instead of at the boundary or corners. We comprehensively examine the spatial and temporal variations of fingering dynamics, different flow regimes, and how they are affected by the water injection rate and control of pressure or rate at the outlet. Alongside the widely recognized diffusion-dominated and convection-dominated flow regimes, we identify three new regimes: a slow expansion regime prior to breakthrough, a rapid shrinkage regime immediately after breakthrough, and a uniform, slow expansion regime without fingering instability. Each regime is characterized by interesting flow dynamics, which has not been reported previously. The duration of each regime depends on the water injection rate and whether constant pressure or a constant production rate is applied at the outlet. The variations of swept area, interfacial length, and count of fingers are also quantitatively examined. This study provides new insights into the fundamental mechanisms for miscible fluid displacements in a variety of applications such as CO2 sequestration, hydrogen storage, enhanced oil recovery, and groundwater contaminate remediation.

Thermally Enhanced Spreading of Miscible Plumes in Porous Media

“…The experiments reported here show more plume spreading with a decreasing Péclet number opposite the expectation for miscible plume spreading by viscous fingering [29,30], but is at least qualitatively consistent with the results of Videbaek and Nagel [9], as shown in Figure 1, where the left panels show the suppression of 3D fingers and the right panels show the development of 2D fingers with a decreasing Péclet number. The present study differs from these three in at least two respects.…”

Effect of Formation Heterogeneity on CO2 Dissolution in Subsurface Porous Media

“…Density-driven convection is significant in safe CO 2 storage as it promotes quick CO 2 sinking rather than rising to shallower formations . The positive effect of density-driven convection has led to various studies about characterizing the transport mechanisms and the effect of different parameters during density-driven convection or Rayleigh–Taylor instability. − …”

Interfacial Dynamics of Miscible Displacement of Shear-Thinning Fluid in a Vertical Channel

“…Haudin et al further studied buoyancy-driven instabilities in viscously stable miscible displacements within a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell [21]. An et al in their recent work studied miscible viscous fingering in a sealed Hele-Shaw cell, where they explored how different parameters can effect the viscous finger dynamics, and identified different flow regimes and their fingering characteristics [22].…”