Visualization and quantification of capillary drainage in the pore space of laminated sandstone by a porous plate method using differential imaging X-ray microtomography
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Lin, Q
Bijeljic, B
Rieke, H
Blunt, MJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The experimental determination of capillary pressure drainage curves at the pore scale is of
vital importance for the mapping of reservoir fluid distribution. To fully characterize capillary drainage in a
complex pore space, we design a differential imaging-based porous plate (DIPP) method using X-ray micro-
tomography. For an exemplar mm-scale laminated sandstone microcore with a porous plate, we quantify
the displacement from resolvable macropores and subresolution micropores. Nitrogen (N
2
) was injected as
the nonwetting phase at a constant pressure while the porous plate prevented its escape. The measured
porosity and capillary pressure at the imaged saturations agree well with helium measurements and experi-
ments on larger core samples, while providing a pore-scale explanation of the fluid distribution. We
observed that the majority of the brine was displaced by N
2
in macropores at low capillary pressures, fol-
lowed by a further brine displacement in micropores when capillary pressure increases. Furthermore, we
were able to discern that brine predominantly remained within the subresolution micropores, such as
regions of fine lamination. The capillary pressure curve for pressures ranging from 0 to 1151 kPa is provided
from the image analysis compares well with the conventional porous plate method for a cm-scale core but
was conducted over a period of 10 days rather than up to few months with the conventional porous plate
method. Overall, we demonstrate the capability of our method to provide quantitative information on two-
phase saturation in heterogeneous core samples for a wide range of capillary pressures even at scales
smaller than the micro-CT resolution
vital importance for the mapping of reservoir fluid distribution. To fully characterize capillary drainage in a
complex pore space, we design a differential imaging-based porous plate (DIPP) method using X-ray micro-
tomography. For an exemplar mm-scale laminated sandstone microcore with a porous plate, we quantify
the displacement from resolvable macropores and subresolution micropores. Nitrogen (N
2
) was injected as
the nonwetting phase at a constant pressure while the porous plate prevented its escape. The measured
porosity and capillary pressure at the imaged saturations agree well with helium measurements and experi-
ments on larger core samples, while providing a pore-scale explanation of the fluid distribution. We
observed that the majority of the brine was displaced by N
2
in macropores at low capillary pressures, fol-
lowed by a further brine displacement in micropores when capillary pressure increases. Furthermore, we
were able to discern that brine predominantly remained within the subresolution micropores, such as
regions of fine lamination. The capillary pressure curve for pressures ranging from 0 to 1151 kPa is provided
from the image analysis compares well with the conventional porous plate method for a cm-scale core but
was conducted over a period of 10 days rather than up to few months with the conventional porous plate
method. Overall, we demonstrate the capability of our method to provide quantitative information on two-
phase saturation in heterogeneous core samples for a wide range of capillary pressures even at scales
smaller than the micro-CT resolution
Date Issued
2017-08-07
Date Acceptance
2017-08-02
Citation
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, 2017, 53 (8), pp.7457-7468
ISSN
0043-1397
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Start Page
7457
End Page
7468
Journal / Book Title
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
Volume
53
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Sponsor
DEA Norge AS
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000411202000058&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
NP04500526830-OJK
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Limnology
Water Resources
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Marine & Freshwater Biology
RESERVOIR CONDITIONS
TRANSPORT
PRESSURE
ROCKS
HETEROGENEITY
TOMOGRAPHY
CURVATURE
POROSITY
IMAGES
CO2
0905 Civil Engineering
0907 Environmental Engineering
1402 Applied Economics
Environmental Engineering
Publication Status
Published