Quantification of uncertainty and best practice in computing interfacial curvature from complex pore space images.
File(s)materials-12-02138-v2.pdf (6.05 MB)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Akai, Takashi
Lin, Qingyang
Alhosani, Abdulla
Bijeljic, Branko
Blunt, Martin J
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Recent advances in high-resolution three-dimensional X-ray CT imaging have made it possible to visualize fluid configurations during multiphase displacement at the pore-scale. However, there is an inherited difficulty in image-based curvature measurements: the use of voxelized image data may introduce significant error, which has not-to date-been quantified. To find the best method to compute curvature from micro-CT images and quantify the likely error, we performed drainage and imbibition direct numerical simulations for an oil/water system on a bead pack and a Bentheimer sandstone. From the simulations, local fluid configurations and fluid pressures were obtained. We then investigated methods to compute curvature on the oil/water interface. The interface was defined in two ways; in one case the simulated interface with a sub-resolution smoothness was used, while the other was a smoothed interface extracted from synthetic segmented data based on the simulated phase distribution. The curvature computed on these surfaces was compared with that obtained from the simulated capillary pressure, which does not depend on the explicit consideration of the shape of the interface. As distinguished from previous studies which compared an average or peak curvature with the value derived from the measured macroscopic capillary pressure, our approach can also be used to study the pore-by-pore variation. This paper suggests the best method to compute curvature on images with a quantification of likely errors: local capillary pressures for each pore can be estimated to within 30% if the average radius of curvature is more than 6 times the image resolution, while the average capillary pressure can also be estimated to within 11% if the average radius of curvature is more than 10 times the image resolution.
Date Issued
2019-07-03
Date Acceptance
2019-06-25
Citation
Materials (Basel), 2019, 12 (13), pp.1-21
ISSN
1996-1944
Publisher
MDPI
Start Page
1
End Page
21
Journal / Book Title
Materials (Basel)
Volume
12
Issue
13
Copyright Statement
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31277221
PII: ma12132138
Subjects
capillary pressure
direct numerical simulation
interfacial curvature
multiphase flow
pore-scale imaging
Publication Status
Published online
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Date Publish Online
2019-07-03