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Sun X, Suo L, Huang Y, Wang H, Yu H, Xu C, Xu J, Qin X, Sun W, Cao Y, Liu T. Study on the Occurrence Characteristics of the Remaining Oil in Sandstone Reservoirs with Different Permeability after Polymer Flooding. Polymers (Basel) 2024; 16:1902. [PMID: 39000757 PMCID: PMC11244145 DOI: 10.3390/polym16131902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2024] [Revised: 06/23/2024] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 07/17/2024] Open
Abstract
After polymer flooding, the heterogeneity between different layers intensifies, forming intricate seepage channels and fluid diversions, which results in decreased circulation efficiency and lower recovery rates, leaving a significant amount of residual oil trapped within the reservoir. Understanding the characteristics of residual oil occurrence is crucial for enhancing oil recovery post-polymer flooding. This study focused on sandstone reservoirs with varying permeability in the Saertu block of the Daqing oilfield. Using cryosectioning and laser scanning confocal microscopy, the occurrence characteristics of the residual oil in these sandstone reservoirs post-polymer flooding were investigated. Additionally, micro-CT and scanning electron microscopy were employed to analyze the impact of the pore structure on the distribution characteristics of the residual oil. The results indicate that laser scanning confocal images reveal that post-polymer flooding, the residual oil in high- and low-permeability sandstone reservoirs predominantly exists in a bound state (average > 47%), mostly as particle-adsorbed oil. In contrast, the residual oil in medium-permeability reservoirs is primarily in a free state (average > 49%), mostly as intergranular-adsorbed oil. In high-permeability sandstone reservoirs, heavy oil components are mainly in a particle-adsorbed form; in medium-permeability sandstone reservoirs, residual oil predominantly consists of heavy components, with most light components occurring in a clustered form; in low-permeability sandstone reservoirs, clustered residual oil exists in a balanced coexistence of light and heavy components, while the heavy components primarily exist in a particle-adsorbed form. Post-polymer flooding, the large pore-throat structure in high-permeability sandstone reservoirs results in effective displacement and less free residual oil; medium-permeability sandstone reservoirs, with medium-large pores and throats, have preferential channels and fine particles blocking the throats, leading to some unswept pores and more free residual oil; low-permeability sandstone reservoirs, with small pores and throats, exhibit weak displacement forces and poor mobility, resulting in more bound residual oil. The distribution and content of clay particles and clay minerals, along with the complex microscopic pore structure, are the main factors causing the differences in the residual oil occurrence states in sandstones with varying permeability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xianda Sun
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Limin Suo
- College of Information and Electrical Engineering, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China
| | - Yuanjing Huang
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Hongyu Wang
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Han Yu
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Chengwu Xu
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Jian Xu
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Xudong Qin
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Wenying Sun
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Yangdong Cao
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
| | - Tao Liu
- National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
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Study on Oil Recovery Mechanism of Polymer-Surfactant Flooding Using X-ray Microtomography and Integral Geometry. Molecules 2022; 27:molecules27238621. [PMID: 36500715 PMCID: PMC9736323 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27238621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 11/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding pore-scale morphology and distribution of remaining oil in pore space are of great importance to carry out in-depth tapping of oil potential. Taking two water-wet cores from a typical clastic reservoir in China as an example, X-ray CT imaging is conducted at different experimental stages of water flooding and polymer-surfactant (P-S) flooding by using a high-resolution X-ray microtomography. Based on X-ray micro-CT image processing, 3D visualization of rock microstructure and fluid distribution at the pore scale is achieved. The integral geometry newly developed is further introduced to characterize pore-scale morphology and distribution of remaining oil in pore space. The underlying mechanism of oil recovery by P-S flooding is further explored. The results show that the average diameter of oil droplets gradually decreases, and the topological connectivity becomes worse after water flooding and P-S flooding. Due to the synergistic effect of “1 + 1 > 2” between the strong sweep efficiency of surfactant and the enlarged swept volume of the polymer, oil droplets with a diameter larger than 124.58 μm can be gradually stripped out by the polymer-surfactant system, causing a more scattered distribution of oil droplets in pore spaces of the cores. The network-like oil clusters are still dominant when water flooding is continued to 98% of water cut, but the dominant pore-scale oil morphology has evolved from network-like to porous-type and isolated-type after P-S flooding, which can provide strong support for further oil recovery in the later stage of chemical flooding.
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Borji M, Kharrat A, Ott H. Comparability of in situ crude oil emulsification in phase equilibrium and under porous-media-flow conditions. J Colloid Interface Sci 2022; 615:196-205. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Revised: 01/26/2022] [Accepted: 01/27/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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She Y, Zhang C, Mahardika MA, Patmonoaji A, Hu Y, Matsushita S, Suekane T. Pore-scale study of in-situ surfactant flooding with strong oil emulsification in sandstone based on X-ray microtomography. J IND ENG CHEM 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2021.03.046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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Tanino Y, Ibekwe A, Pokrajac D. Impact of grain roughness on residual nonwetting phase cluster size distribution in packed columns of uniform spheres. Phys Rev E 2020; 102:013109. [PMID: 32795039 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.102.013109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
We imaged the pore-scale distribution of air and water within packed columns of glass spheres of different textures using x-ray microcomputed tomography after primary drainage and after secondary imbibition. Postimbibition residual air saturation increases with roughness size. Clusters larger than a critical size of about 15 to 40 pores are distributed according to a power law, with exponents ranging from τ=2.29±0.04 to 3.00±0.13 and displaying a weak negative correlation with roughness size. The largest cluster constitutes 7 to 20% of the total residual gas saturation, with no clear correlation with roughness size. These results imply that activities that enhance grain roughness by, e.g., creating acidic conditions in the subsurface, will promote capillary trapping of nonwetting phases under capillary-dominated conditions. Enhanced trapping, in turn, may be desirable in some engineering applications such as geological CO_{2} storage, but detrimental to others such as groundwater remediation and hydrocarbon recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yukie Tanino
- School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom
| | - Anelechi Ibekwe
- School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom
| | - Dubravka Pokrajac
- School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom
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Sun C, McClure JE, Mostaghimi P, Herring AL, Shabaninejad M, Berg S, Armstrong RT. Linking continuum-scale state of wetting to pore-scale contact angles in porous media. J Colloid Interface Sci 2020; 561:173-180. [PMID: 31812863 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2019] [Revised: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
HYPOTHESIS Wetting phenomena play a key role in flows through porous media. Relative permeability and capillary pressure-saturation functions show a high sensitivity to wettability, which has different definitions at the continuum- and pore-scale. We hypothesize that the wetting state of a porous medium can be described in terms of topological arguments that constrain the morphological state of immiscible fluids, which provides a direct link between the continuum-scale metrics of wettability and pore-scale contact angles. EXPERIMENTS We perform primary drainage and imbibition experiments on Bentheimer sandstone using air and brine. Topological properties, such as Euler characteristic and interfacial curvature are measured utilizing X-ray micro-computed tomography at irreducible air saturation. We also present measurements for the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) index, capillary pressure and pore-scale contact angles. Additional studies are performed using two-phase Lattice Boltzmann simulations to test a wider range of wetting conditions. FINDINGS We demonstrate that contact angle distributions for a porous multiphase system can be predicted within a few percent difference of directly measured pore-scale contact angles using the presented method. This provides a general framework on how continuum-scale data can be used to describe the geometrical state of fluids within porous media.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenhao Sun
- School of Minerals & Energy Resources Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - James E McClure
- Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
| | - Peyman Mostaghimi
- School of Minerals & Energy Resources Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Anna L Herring
- Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
| | - Mehdi Shabaninejad
- Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
| | - Steffen Berg
- Rock & Fluid Physics, Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Grasweg 31, 1031 HW Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK; Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Ryan T Armstrong
- School of Minerals & Energy Resources Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia.
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Unsal E, Rücker M, Berg S, Bartels W, Bonnin A. Imaging of compositional gradients during in situ emulsification using X-ray micro-tomography. J Colloid Interface Sci 2019; 550:159-169. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.04.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2019] [Revised: 04/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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8
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Hosseinzadeh Hejazi SA, Shah S, Pini R. Dynamic measurements of drainage capillary pressure curves in carbonate rocks. Chem Eng Sci 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2019.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Zarikos I, Terzis A, Hassanizadeh SM, Weigand B. Velocity distributions in trapped and mobilized non-wetting phase ganglia in porous media. Sci Rep 2018; 8:13228. [PMID: 30185879 PMCID: PMC6125365 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-31639-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 08/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the mobilisation of trapped globules of non-wetting phase during two-phase flow has been the aim of numerous studies. However, the driving forces for the mobilisation of the trapped phases are still not well understood. Also, there is little information about what happens within a globule before, at the onset and during mobilization. In this work, we used micro-particle tracking velocimetry in a micro-fluidic model in order to visualise the velocity distributions inside the trapped phase globules prior and during mobilisation. Therefore, time-averaged and instantaneous velocity vectors have been determined using fluorescent microscopy. As a porous medium, we used a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micro-model with a well-defined pore structure, where drainage and imbibition experiments were conducted. Three different geometries of trapped non-wetting globules, namely droplets, blobs and ganglia were investigated. We observed internal circulations inside the trapped phase globules, leading to the formation of vortices. The direction of circulating flow within a globule is dictated by the drag force exerted on it by the flowing wetting phase. This is illustrated by calculating and analyzing the drag force (per unit area) along fluid-fluid interfaces. In the case of droplets and blobs, only one vortex is formed. The flow field within a ganglion is much more complex and more vortices can be formed. The circulation velocities are largest at the fluid-fluid interfaces, along which the wetting phase flows and decreases towards the middle of the globule. The circulation velocities increased proportionally with the increase of wetting phase average velocity (or capillary number). The vortices remain stable as long as the globules are trapped, start to change at the onset of mobilization and disappear during the movement of globules. They reappear when the globules get stranded. Droplets are less prone to mobilization; blobs get mobilised in whole; while ganglia may get ruptured and get mobilised only partially.
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Affiliation(s)
- I Zarikos
- Environmental Hydrogeology Group, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Utrecht, 3584 CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - A Terzis
- Institute of Aerospace Thermodynamics, University of Stuttgart, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - S M Hassanizadeh
- Environmental Hydrogeology Group, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Utrecht, 3584 CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - B Weigand
- Institute of Aerospace Thermodynamics, University of Stuttgart, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany
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10
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Iglauer S, Lebedev M. High pressure-elevated temperature x-ray micro-computed tomography for subsurface applications. Adv Colloid Interface Sci 2018. [PMID: 29526246 DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2017.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Physical, chemical and mechanical pore-scale (i.e. micrometer-scale) mechanisms in rock are of key importance in many, if not all, subsurface processes. These processes are highly relevant in various applications, e.g. hydrocarbon recovery, CO2 geo-sequestration, geophysical exploration, water production, geothermal energy production, or the prediction of the location of valuable hydrothermal deposits. Typical examples are multi-phase flow (e.g. oil and water) displacements driven by buoyancy, viscous or capillary forces, mineral-fluid interactions (e.g. mineral dissolution and/or precipitation over geological times), geo-mechanical rock behaviour (e.g. rock compaction during diagenesis) or fines migration during water production, which can dramatically reduce reservoir permeability (and thus reservoir performance). All above examples are 3D processes, and 2D experiments (as traditionally done for micro-scale investigations) will thus only provide qualitative information; for instance the percolation threshold is much lower in 3D than in 2D. However, with the advent of x-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) - which is now routinely used - this limitation has been overcome, and such pore-scale processes can be observed in 3D at micrometer-scale. A serious complication is, however, the fact that in the subsurface high pressures and elevated temperatures (HPET) prevail, due to the hydrostatic and geothermal gradients imposed upon it. Such HPET-reservoir conditions significantly change the above mentioned physical and chemical processes, e.g. gas density is much higher at high pressure, which strongly affects buoyancy and wettability and thus gas distributions in the subsurface; or chemical reactions are significantly accelerated at increased temperature, strongly affecting fluid-rock interactions and thus diagenesis and deposition of valuable minerals. It is thus necessary to apply HPET conditions to the aforementioned μCT experiments, to be able to mimic subsurface conditions in a realistic way, and thus to obtain reliable results, which are vital input parameters required for building accurate larger-scale reservoir models which can predict the overall reservoir-scale (hectometer-scale) processes (e.g. oil production or diagenesis of a formation). We thus describe here the basic workflow of such HPET-μCT experiments, equipment requirements and apparatus design; and review the literature where such HPET-μCT experiments were used and which phenomena were investigated (these include: CO2 geo-sequestration, oil recovery, gas hydrate formation, hydrothermal deposition/reactive flow). One aim of this paper is to give a guideline to users how to set-up a HPET-μCT experiment, and to provide a quick overview in terms of what is possible and what not, at least up to date. As a conclusion, HPET-μCT is a valuable tool when it comes to the investigation of subsurface micrometer-scaled processes, and we expect a rapidly expanding usage of HPET-μCT in subsurface engineering and the subsurface sciences.
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12
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Review of Steady-State Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media: Independent Variables, Universal Energy Efficiency Map, Critical Flow Conditions, Effective Characterization of Flow and Pore Network. Transp Porous Media 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-018-1026-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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13
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Gao Y, Lin Q, Bijeljic B, Blunt MJ. X-ray Microtomography of Intermittency in Multiphase Flow at Steady State Using a Differential Imaging Method. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 2017; 53:10274-10292. [PMID: 30333671 PMCID: PMC6175102 DOI: 10.1002/2017wr021736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2017] [Accepted: 11/15/2017] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
We imaged the steady state flow of brine and decane in Bentheimer sandstone. We devised an experimental method based on differential imaging to examine how flow rate impacts impact the pore-scale distribution of fluids during coinjection. This allows us to elucidate flow regimes (connected, or breakup of the nonwetting phase pathways) for a range of fractional flows at two capillary numbers, Ca, namely 3.0 × 10-7 and 7.5 × 10-6. At the lower Ca, for a fixed fractional flow, the two phases appear to flow in connected unchanging subnetworks of the pore space, consistent with conventional theory. At the higher Ca, we observed that a significant fraction of the pore space contained sometimes oil and sometimes brine during the 1 h scan: this intermittent occupancy, which was interpreted as regions of the pore space that contained both fluid phases for some time, is necessary to explain the flow and dynamic connectivity of the oil phase; pathways of always oil-filled portions of the void space did not span the core. This phase was segmented from the differential image between the 30 wt % KI brine image and the scans taken at each fractional flow. Using the grey scale histogram distribution of the raw images, the oil proportion in the intermittent phase was calculated. The pressure drops at each fractional flow at low and high flow rates were measured by high-precision differential pressure sensors. The relative permeabilities and fractional flow obtained by our experiment at the mm-scale compare well with data from the literature on cm-scale samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Gao
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Qingyang Lin
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Branko Bijeljic
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | - Martin J. Blunt
- Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
- Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
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Qajar J, Arns CH. Characterization of reactive flow-induced evolution of carbonate rocks using digital core analysis - part 2: Calculation of the evolution of percolation and transport properties. JOURNAL OF CONTAMINANT HYDROLOGY 2017; 204:11-27. [PMID: 28822588 DOI: 10.1016/j.jconhyd.2017.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2017] [Revised: 07/29/2017] [Accepted: 08/05/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Percolation of reactive fluids in carbonate rocks affects the rock microstructure and hence changes the rock macroscopic properties. In Part 1 paper, we examined the voxel-wise evolution of microstructure of the rock in terms of mineral dissolution/detachment, mineral deposition, and unchanged regions. In the present work, we investigate the relationships between changes in two characteristic transport properties, i.e. permeability and electrical conductivity and two critical parameters of the pore phase, i.e. the fraction of the pore space connecting the inlet and outlet faces of the core sample and the critical pore-throat diameter. We calculate the aforementioned properties on the images of the sample, wherein a homogeneous modification of pore structure occurred in order to ensure the representativeness of the calculated transport properties at the core scale. From images, the evolution of pore connectivity and the potential role of micropores on the connectivity are quantified. It is found that the changing permeability and electrical conductivity distributions along the core length are generally in good agreement with the longitudinal evolution of macro-connected macroporosity and the critical pore-throat diameter. We incorporate microporosity into critical length and permeability calculations and show how microporosity locally plays a role in permeability. It is shown that the Katz-Thompson model reasonably predicts the post-alteration permeability in terms of pre-alteration simulated parameters. This suggests that the evolution of permeability and electrical conductivity of the studied complex carbonate core are controlled by the changes in the macro-connected macroporosity as well as the smallest pore-throats between the connected macropores.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jafar Qajar
- School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran; School of Petroleum Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
| | - Christoph H Arns
- School of Petroleum Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
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15
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McClure JE, Berrill MA, Gray WG, Miller CT. Influence of phase connectivity on the relationship among capillary pressure, fluid saturation, and interfacial area in two-fluid-phase porous medium systems. Phys Rev E 2016; 94:033102. [PMID: 27739835 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.94.033102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Multiphase flows in porous medium systems are typically modeled at the macroscale by applying the principles of continuum mechanics to develop models that describe the behavior of averaged quantities, such as fluid pressure and saturation. These models require closure relations to produce solvable forms. One of these required closure relations is an expression relating the capillary pressure to fluid saturation and, in some cases, other topological invariants such as interfacial area and the Euler characteristic (or average Gaussian curvature). The forms that are used in traditional models, which typically consider only the relationship between capillary pressure and saturation, are hysteretic. An unresolved question is whether the inclusion of additional morphological and topological measures can lead to a nonhysteretic closure relation. Relying on the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, we develop an approach to investigate equilibrium states for a two-fluid-phase porous medium system, which includes disconnected nonwetting phase features. A set of simulations are performed within a random close pack of 1964 spheres to produce a total of 42 908 distinct equilibrium configurations. This information is evaluated using generalized additive models to quantitatively assess the degree to which functional relationships can explain the behavior of the equilibrium data. The variance of various model estimates is computed, and we conclude that, except for the limiting behavior close to a single fluid regime, capillary pressure can be expressed as a deterministic and nonhysteretic function of fluid saturation, interfacial area between the fluid phases, and the Euler characteristic. To our knowledge, this work is unique in the methods employed, the size of the data set, the resolution in space and time, the true equilibrium nature of the data, the parametrizations investigated, and the broad set of functions examined. The conclusion of essentially nonhysteretic behavior provides support for an evolving class of two-fluid-phase flow in porous medium systems models.
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Affiliation(s)
- James E McClure
- Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0123, USA
| | | | - William G Gray
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
| | - Cass T Miller
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
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16
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Rahman T, Lebedev M, Barifcani A, Iglauer S. Residual trapping of supercritical CO2 in oil-wet sandstone. J Colloid Interface Sci 2016; 469:63-68. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.02.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2015] [Revised: 02/04/2016] [Accepted: 02/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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17
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Geistlinger H, Ataei-Dadavi I, Vogel HJ. Impact of Surface Roughness on Capillary Trapping Using 2D-Micromodel Visualization Experiments. Transp Porous Media 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-016-0641-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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18
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Definition and Counting of Configurational Microstates in Steady-State Two-Phase Flows in Pore Networks. ENTROPY 2016. [DOI: 10.3390/e18020054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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19
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Liu Y, Lv P, Liu Y, Jiang L, Tetsuya S, Song Y, Wu B, Liu S. CO2/water two-phase flow in a two-dimensional micromodel of heterogeneous pores and throats. RSC Adv 2016. [DOI: 10.1039/c6ra10229h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Small capillary fingerings can be collapsed by capillary pressure in the beginning of displacement. Larger fingerings tend to form with developing displacement and cannot be overcome anymore.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Liu
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education
- Dalian University of Technology
- Dalian 116024
- China
| | - Pengfei Lv
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education
- Dalian University of Technology
- Dalian 116024
- China
| | - Yao Liu
- Department of Energy Sciences
- Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Yokohama
- Japan
| | - Lanlan Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education
- Dalian University of Technology
- Dalian 116024
- China
| | - Suekane Tetsuya
- Department of Energy Sciences
- Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Yokohama
- Japan
| | - Yongchen Song
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education
- Dalian University of Technology
- Dalian 116024
- China
| | - Bohao Wu
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education
- Dalian University of Technology
- Dalian 116024
- China
| | - Shuyang Liu
- Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education
- Dalian University of Technology
- Dalian 116024
- China
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20
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Hilfer R, Armstrong RT, Berg S, Georgiadis A, Ott H. Capillary saturation and desaturation. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2015; 92:063023. [PMID: 26764820 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.92.063023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Capillary desaturation experiments produce disconnected (trapped) ganglia of mesoscopic sizes intermediate between pore size and system size. Experimental evidence for interactions between these mesoscale clusters during desaturation is analyzed and discussed within the established microscopic and macroscopic laws of Newton, Young-Laplace, and Darcy. A theoretical expression for capillary number correlations is introduced that seems to have remained unnoticed. It expresses capillary desaturation curves in terms of stationary capillary pressures and relative permeabilities. The theoretical expression shows that the plateau saturation in capillary desaturation curves may in general differ from the residual nonwetting saturation defined through the saturation limit of the main hysteresis loop. Hysteresis effects as well as the difference between wetting and nonwetting fluids are introduced into the analysis of capillary desaturation experiments. The article examines experiments with different desaturation protocols and discusses the existence of a mesoscopic length scale intermediate between pore scale and sample scale. The theoretical expression is derived entirely within the existing traditional theory of two-phase flow in porous media and compared to a recent experiment.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Hilfer
- ICP, Universität Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - R T Armstrong
- School of Petroleum Engineering, University of New South Wales, NSW, 2052 Sydney, Australia
| | - S Berg
- Shell Global Solutions International B.V., 2288 GS Rijswijk, Netherlands
| | - A Georgiadis
- Shell Global Solutions International B.V., 2288 GS Rijswijk, Netherlands
| | - H Ott
- Shell Global Solutions International B.V., 2288 GS Rijswijk, Netherlands
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Shi M, Printsypar G, Iliev O, Calo VM, Amy GL, Nunes SP. Water flow prediction for membranes using 3D simulations with detailed morphology. J Memb Sci 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2015.03.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Fast X-ray Micro-Tomography of Multiphase Flow in Berea Sandstone: A Sensitivity Study on Image Processing. Transp Porous Media 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s11242-014-0378-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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