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Laser-induced fluorescence was used to measure the lateral dispersion of passive solute in random arrays of rigid, emergent cylinders of solid volume fraction φ=0.010–0.35. Such densities correspond to those observed in aquatic plant canopies and complement those in packed beds of spheres, where φ≥0.5. This paper focuses on pore Reynolds numbers greater than Res=250, for which our laboratory experiments demonstrate that the spatially averaged turbulence intensity and Kyy/(Upd), the lateral dispersion coefficient normalized by the mean velocity in the fluid volume, Up, and the cylinder diameter, d, are independent of Res. First, Kyy/(Upd) increases rapidly with φ from φ =0 to φ=0.031. Then, Kyy/(Upd) decreases from φ=0.031 to φ=0.20. Finally, Kyy/(Upd) increases again, more gradually, from φ=0.20 to φ=0.35. These observations are accurately described by the linear superposition of the proposed model of turbulent diffusion and existing models of dispersion due to the spatially heterogeneous velocity field that arises from the presence of the cylinders. The contribution from turbulent diffusion scales with the mean turbulence intensity, the characteristic length scale of turbulent mixing and the effective porosity. From a balance between the production of turbulent kinetic energy by the cylinder wakes and its viscous dissipation, the mean turbulence intensity for a given cylinder diameter and cylinder density is predicted to be a function of the form drag coefficient and the integral length scale lt. We propose and experimentally verify that lt=min{d, 〈sn〉A}, where 〈sn〉A is the average surface-to-surface distance between a cylinder in the array and its nearest neighbour. We farther propose that only turbulent eddies with mixing length scale greater than d contribute significantly to net lateral dispersion, and that neighbouring cylinder centres must be farther than r* from each other for the pore space between them to contain such eddies. If the integral length scale and the length scale for mixing are equal, then r*=2d. Our laboratory data agree well with predictions based on this definition of r*.

[1] Residual non-wetting phase saturation and wetting-phase permeability were measured in three limestones and four sandstones ranging in porosity from 0.13 to 0.28 and in absolute permeability from 2 Â 10 À15 to 3 Â 10 À12 m 2 . This paper focuses on the residual state established by waterflooding at low capillary number from minimum water saturation achieved using the porous plate technique, which yields the maximum residual under strongly water-wet conditions. The pore coordination number and pore body-throat aspect ratio of each rock were estimated using pore networks extracted from X-ray microtomography images of the rocks. Residual saturation decreases with increasing porosity, with no apparent difference in magnitude between the limestones and sandstones at a given porosity. Thus intraparticle/intra-aggregate microporosity does not significantly alter the efficiency of capillary trapping in the rocks considered presently. Residual saturation broadly decreases as conditions become less favorable for snap-off, i.e., with decreasing pore aspect ratio and increasing coordination number. The measured residual saturations imply that capillary trapping may be an effective mechanism for storing carbon dioxide in both sandstones and carbonates provided that the systems are strongly water-wet.Citation: Tanino, Y., and M. J. Blunt (2012), Capillary trapping in sandstones and carbonates: Dependence on pore structure, Water Resour. Res., 48, W08525,

Abstract. A lock exchange experiment is used to investigate the propagation of gravity currents through a random array of rigid, emergent cylinders which represents a canopy of aquatic plants. As canopy drag increases, the propagating front varies from the classic profile of an unobstructed gravity current to a triangular profile. Unlike the unobstructed lock exchange, the gravity current in the canopy decelerates with time as the front lengthens. Two drag-dominated regimes associated with linear and non-linear drag laws are identified. The theoretical expression for toe velocity is supported by observed values. Empirical criteria are developed to predict the current regime from the cylinder Reynolds number and the array density.

To date, the visualisation of flow through porous media assembled in microfluidic chips was confined to mineralogically homogenous systems. Here we present a key evolution in the method that permits the investigation of mineralogically realistic rock analogues.

[1] Remaining oil saturation established by waterflooding was measured in Indiana limestone in its original, water-wet state and under mixed-wet conditions established by adding organic acid to the oil phase. The porous plate technique was used to establish initial oil saturations ranging from S nwi ¼ 0.23 to 0.93 under capillary-dominated conditions. For water-wet conditions, the residual oil saturation increased linearly with its initial saturation. In contrast, the remaining oil saturation under mixed-wet conditions, S nw , displayed three distinct regimes. First, S nw increased with its initial saturation up to S nwi ¼ 0.58. Next, S nw decreased from S nwi ¼ 0.58 to 0.76. Finally, S nw increased again as S nwi approached one. The nonmonotonic dependence of S nw on S nwi at S nwi > 0.5 is well described by a concaveup quadratic function, and may be a salient feature of mixed-wet rocks.

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End point relative permeabilities were measured in three limestones with permeabilities ranging from 0.6 to 220 mD under five wettability states established by adding different organic acids, of similar molecular structure but different alkyl chain length, to the oil phase. The altered wettability corresponding to each oil/brine pair is characterized by their dynamic contact angle on a polished calcite substrate, θw, which varied between 50° and 150°. Saturation‐normalized relative permeability to oil exceeds one at θw<140° in all rock considered. The equivalent slip length, defined by modeling the porous medium as a capillary tube with the defending phase distributed as an annular film on the tube wall, was below 200 nm in all experiments. The results indicate that commonly used models of relative permeability, which assume that the maximum permeability is the single‐phase permeability, underestimate oil displacement for a much wider range of contact angles than previously documented.