New type of pore-snap-off and displacement correlations in imbibition
File(s)Singh et al JCIS 2022.pdf (1.89 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Singh, Kamaljit
Bultreys, Tom
Raeini, Ali Q
Shams, Mosayeb
Blunt, Martin J
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
HYPOTHESIS: Imbibition of a fluid into a porous material involves the invasion of a wetting fluid in the pore space through piston-like displacement, film and corner flow, snap-off and pore bypassing. These processes have been studied extensively in two-dimensional (2D) porous systems; however, their relevance to three-dimensional (3D) natural porous media is poorly understood. Here, we investigate these pore-scale processes in a natural rock sample using time-resolved 3D (i.e., four-dimensional or 4D) X-ray imaging. EXPERIMENTS: We performed a capillary-controlled drainage-imbibition experiment on an initially brine-saturated carbonate rock sample. The sample was imaged continuously during imbibition using 4D X-ray imaging to visualize and analyze fluid displacement and snap-off processes at the pore-scale. FINDINGS: We discover a new type of snap-off that occurs in pores, resulting in the entrapment of a small portion of the non-wetting phase in pore corners. This contrasts with previously-observed snap-off in throats which traps the non-wetting phase in pore centers. We relate the new type of pore-snap-off to the pinning of fluid-fluid interfaces at rough surfaces, creating contact angles close to 90°. Subsequently, we provide correlations for displacement events as a function of pore-throat geometry. Our findings indicate that having a small throat does not necessarily favor snap-off: the key criterion is the throat radius in relation to the pore radius involved in a displacement event, captured by the aspect ratio.
Date Issued
2022-03-01
Date Acceptance
2021-11-19
Citation
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2022, 609, pp.384-392
ISSN
0021-9797
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
384
End Page
392
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
Volume
609
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Sponsor
Qatar Petroleum
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34902675
PII: S0021-9797(21)02019-1
Grant Number
N/A
Subjects
4D X-ray imaging
Imbibition
multiphase flow
pore-filling
porous media
snap-off
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2021-11-27