A 2.5-D glass micromodel for investigation of multi-phase flow in porous media

Xu, Ke; Liang, Tianbo; Zhu, Peimin; Qi, Pengpeng; Lu, Jun; Huh, Chun; Balhoff, Matthew T.

doi:10.1039/c6lc01476c

Cited by 174 publications

(129 citation statements)

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“…The schematic illustration of a) the isotropic wet etching and anisotropic dry etching, and b) the etching and sealing processes in fabricating 2.5D glass micromodel. Adapted with permission . Copyright 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry.…”

Section: Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent advance is the fabrication of “2.5D” micromodels using HF etching, which leverages the trapezoidal channel cross section formed during wet etching to design connected microchannels . In this approach, the neighboring channels (the pore “bodies”) are etched so that their trapezoidal cross sections begin to overlap; controlling the amount of overlap controls the depth of this pore “throat.” Figure b illustrates this process.…”

Section: Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microfluidic Model Porous Media: Fabrication and Applications

Anbari

Chien

Datta

et al. 2018

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167

158

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Complex fluid flow in porous media is ubiquitous in many natural and industrial processes. Direct visualization of the fluid structure and flow dynamics is critical for understanding and eventually manipulating these processes. However, the opacity of realistic porous media makes such visualization very challenging. Micromodels, microfluidic model porous media systems, have been developed to address this challenge. They provide a transparent interconnected porous network that enables the optical visualization of the complex fluid flow occurring inside at the pore scale. In this Review, the materials and fabrication methods to make micromodels, the main research activities that are conducted with micromodels and their applications in petroleum, geologic, and environmental engineering, as well as in the food and wood industries, are discussed. The potential applications of micromodels in other areas are also discussed and the key issues that should be addressed in the near future are proposed.

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Section: Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic Model Porous Media: Fabrication and Applications

Anbari

Chien

Datta

et al. 2018

Small

167

158

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“…Waterflood oil displacement is a function of the hydrophilicity of the grains, grain roughness, pore size distribution and pore geometry, viscosity ratio, Ca, and system dimensions, and meaningful comparison of absolute values with other experimental systems is difficult (e.g., Dullien et al 1989;Xu et al 2017;Yun et al 2017;Nguyen et al 2006;Tanino and Blunt 2013;Vizika et al 1994). Notwithstanding this, present measurements of Ŝ or ≈ 0.52 are broadly larger than values reported in the literature at comparable Ca, which range from Ŝ or ≈ 0.09 in a 3D packed bed of smooth spheres (Datta et al 2014, s ≈ 5…”

Section: Mean Oil Saturationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microfluidic studies of two-phase, oil/water displacement processes typically involve the addition of dye to the aqueous phase to facilitate visualization (e.g., Geistlinger et al 2016;Frette et al 1997;Chevalier et al 2015;Xu et al 2017;Yun et al 2017;Kumar Gunda et al 2011;Xu et al 2014;Cottin et al 2010;Yeganeh et al 2016;Levaché and Bartolo 2014;Datta et al 2014) unless opaque crude oil is used (e.g., Song and Kovscek 2015;Zhu and Papadopoulos 2012;Bowden et al 2016). However, many enhanced oil recovery and NAPL-remediation approaches involve the addition of chemical additives such as surfactants and polymers to the water that is injected into the system to displace the oil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil/water displacement in microfluidic packed beds under weakly water-wetting conditions: competition between precursor film flow and piston-like displacement

2018

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Optical microscopy was used to measure depth-averaged oil distribution in a quasi-monolayer of crushed marble packed in a microfluidic channel as it was displaced by water. By calibrating the transmitted light intensity to oil thickness, we account for depth variation in the fluid distribution. Experiments reveal that oil saturation at water breakthrough decreases with increasing Darcy velocity, U w , between capillary numbers Ca = w U w ∕ = 9 × 10 −7 and 9 × 10 −6 , where w is the dynamic viscosity of water and is the oil/water interfacial tension, under the conditions considered presently. In contrast, end-point (long-time) remaining oil saturation depends only weakly on U w . This transient dependence on velocity is attributed to the competition between precursor film flow, which controls early time invasion dynamics but is inefficient at displacing oil, and piston-like displacement, which controls ultimate oil recovery. These results demonstrate that microfluidic experiments using translucent grains and fluids are a convenient tool for quantitative investigation of sub-resolution liquid/liquid displacement in porous media.

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“…Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) [28,29] or focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) [30] can be used to reconstruct the 3D pore structure for incorporation into porous media micromodels. Reproducing 3D pore space using these approaches is expensive and limited in scale [31][32][33], which led to a recent proposal to utilize microfluidic devices with patterned channels as a 2.5D structure to mimic the transport characteristics of 3D pore space [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waterflooding of Surfactant and Polymer Solutions in a Porous Media Micromodel

Yeh

Juárez

2018

Colloids and Interfaces

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Abstract:In this study, we examine microscale waterflooding in a randomly close-packed porous medium. Three different porosities were prepared in a microfluidic platform and saturated with silicone oil. Optical video fluorescence microscopy was used to track the water front as it flowed through the porous packed bed. The degree of water saturation was compared to water containing two different types of chemical modifiers, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), with water in the absence of a surfactant used as a control. Image analysis of our video data yielded saturation curves and calculated fractal dimension, which we used to identify how morphology changed the way in which an invading water phase moved through the porous media. An inverse analysis based on the implicit pressure explicit saturation (IMPES) simulation technique used mobility ratio as an adjustable parameter to fit our experimental saturation curves. The results from our inverse analysis combined with our image analysis show that this platform can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of surfactants or polymers as additives for enhancing the transport of water through an oil-saturated porous medium.

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A 2.5-D glass micromodel for investigation of multi-phase flow in porous media

Abstract: A novel method to fabricate micromodels with varying depth (2.5-D) was developed, which allows more realistic investigation on flow in natural 3-D porous media.

Cited by 174 publications

References 40 publications

Microfluidic Model Porous Media: Fabrication and Applications

Microfluidic Model Porous Media: Fabrication and Applications

Oil/water displacement in microfluidic packed beds under weakly water-wetting conditions: competition between precursor film flow and piston-like displacement

Waterflooding of Surfactant and Polymer Solutions in a Porous Media Micromodel

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