Decane and brine injected into Estaillades carbonate - steady-state experiments


Publications

  1. Decane and brine injected into Estaillades carbonate - steady-state experiments>
    . Mechanisms controlling fluid breakup and reconnection during two-phase flow in porous media. Physical Review E. .
    Links
    • https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.100.043115

    Abstract — The use of Darcy's law to describe steady-state multiphase flow in porous media has been justified by the assumption that the fluids flow in continuously connected pathways. However, a range of complex interface dynamics have been observed during macroscopically steady-state flow, including intermittent pathway flow where flow pathways periodically disconnect and reconnect. The physical mechanisms controlling this behavior have remained unclear, leading to uncertainty concerning the occurrence of the different flow regimes. We observe that the fraction of intermittent flow pathways is dependent on the capillary number and viscosity ratio. We propose a phase diagram within this parameter space to quantify the degree of intermittent flow.

  2. Decane and brine injected into Estaillades carbonate - steady-state experiments>
    . Intermittent fluid connectivity during two-phase flow in a heterogeneous carbonate rock. Physical Review E. .
    Links
    • https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.100.043103

    Abstract — Subsurface fluid flow is ubiquitous in nature, and understanding the interaction of multiple fluids as they flow within a porous medium is central to many geological, environmental, and industrial processes. It is assumed that the flow pathways of each phase are invariant when modeling subsurface flow using Darcy's law extended to multiphase flow, a condition that is assumed to be valid during steady-state flow. However, it has been observed that intermittent flow pathways exist at steady state even at the low capillary numbers typically encountered in the subsurface. Little is known about the pore structure controls or the impact of intermittency on continuum scale flow properties. Here we investigate the impact of intermittent pathways on the connectivity of the fluids for a carbonate rock. Using laboratory-based micro computed tomography imaging we observe that intermittent pathway flow occurs in intermediate-sized pores due to the competition between both flowing fluids. This competition moves to smaller pores when the flow rate of the nonwetting phase increases. Intermittency occurs in poorly connected pores or in regions where the nonwetting phase itself is poorly connected. Intermittent pathways lead to the interrupted transport of the fluids; this means they are important in determining continuum scale flow properties, such as relative permeability. The impact of intermittency on flow properties is significant because it occurs at key locations, whereby the nonwetting phase is otherwise disconnected.