Fractional Flow Experiments

Description

Factional flow experiments conducted with decane and brine in a sintered glass filter (Robuglas). The sample was a water-wet, sintered glass sample called Robuglas with a porosity of 0.33, permeability of 22 Darcy, 4 mm diameter, and 20 mm length. Dynamic high-resolution 3D images were collected at the TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. The images were collected at 36 KeV at a resolution of 4.22 μm. Cesium chloride was used as the contrast agent and was added to the WP as a 1:6 weight ratio. A total of 1500 radiographs with 40-ms exposure times were collected for a single 3D image. Images were collected under dynamic flow conditions, i.e., co-injection of decane and brine. We imaged fluid distributions at Q T = 3, 30, and 300 μl/min for each F_w (fractional flow) tested to evaluate a range of different capillary numbers (Ca = 10^−6, 10^−5, and 10^−4 ). The filename corresponds to the total flow rate (Q_T) and fractional flow condition imaged. Flow mechanisms were analysed in the linked Petrophysics paper. Also, a selection of images were used as initialisation conditions for the LBM simulations reported in the linked Physical Review E publication. The file format (.am) can be opened with Avizo or Fiji (Image J) software. Voxel values are the following: grain is 3, water is 2, and oil is 1.