Linking pore-scale interfacial curvature to column-scale capillary pressure

Armstrong, Ryan T.; Porter, Mark L.; Wildenschild, D.

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.05.009

Cited by 170 publications

(175 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…[10] For the measurement of interfacial curvature we refer to Armstrong et al [2012], and for the measurement of interfacial area we refer to Porter and Wildenschild [2010]. With this approach, we assume that clusters in the pore-space span the pore body and are pinned near the pore neck entry regions and thus, this measurement is an estimate of the average entry capillary pressures that are relevant to a given system of nonwetting phase clusters.…”

Section: Averaging Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical capillary number: Desaturation studied with fast X‐ray computed microtomography

Armstrong

Georgiadis

Ott

et al. 2014

Geophysical Research Letters

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152

105

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[1] For subsurface flow, the correct definition for the balance of viscous and capillary forces, the so-called capillary number (Ca), which predicts the mobilization of nonwetting phase, has been a long-standing controversy. The most common microscopic definition results in nonwetting phase mobilization at Ca~10 À5, which is counterintuitive. Rather, mobilization should occur at Ca ≥ 1. As demonstrated herein, by using fast synchrotronbased X-ray computed microtomography and averaging of thereby accessible pore-scale parameters to macroscale values, a macroscale Ca definition is validated and shown to correctly describe mobilization at Ca~1. The presented methodology provides a connection between desaturation and pore-scale fluid topology and gives insight into when and how Ca changes with system size. The broader implication implies that it makes a difference whether desaturation is driven by an increase in flow rate or viscosity or decrease in interfacial tension since Ca incorporates nonwetting phase cluster length, which is process-dependent.

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Section: Averaging Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical capillary number: Desaturation studied with fast X‐ray computed microtomography

Armstrong

Georgiadis

Ott

et al. 2014

Geophysical Research Letters

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152

105

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“…2g, h) producing a surface scalar field. This method was originally described by Armstrong et al (2012), and errors in the protocol for the CO 2 -brine-carbonate system addressed by Andrew et al (2014a). Extending this technique to measure the capillary pressure during drainage in this system is, however, challenging.…”

Section: Partially Saturated Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Capillary pressure is traditionally measured using techniques such as mercury injection (Purcell 1949), porous plate coreflooding (El-Maghraby and Blunt 2013; Pentland et al 2011) or quasisteady-state coreflooding (Pini et al 2012); however, recent developments have allowed for direct measurement of capillary pressure at the pore-scale through the measurement of the curvature of surfaces generated across the wetting-non-wetting phase interface (Andrew et al 2014a;Armstrong et al 2012). Surfaces were generated using a smoothed marching cubes algorithm, and curvatures found by creating a best-fit quadratic surface for each of the elements across the CO 2 -brine interface (Hege et al 1997;Stalling et al 1998) (Fig.…”

Section: Partially Saturated Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Imaging of Dynamic Multiphase Fluid Flow Using Synchrotron-Based X-ray Microtomography at Reservoir Conditions

et al. 2015

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Fast synchrotron-based X-ray microtomography was used to image the injection of super-critical CO 2 under subsurface conditions into a brine-saturated carbonate sample at the pore-scale with a voxel size of 3.64 µm and a temporal resolution of 45 s. Capillary pressure was measured from the images by finding the curvature of terminal menisci of both connected and disconnected CO 2 clusters. We provide an analysis of three individual dynamic drainage events at elevated temperatures and pressures on the tens of seconds timescale, showing nonlocal interface recession due to capillary pressure change, and both local and distal (non-local) snap-off. The measured capillary pressure change is not sufficient to explain snap-off in this system, as the disconnected CO 2 has a much lower capillary pressure than the connected CO 2 both before and after the event. Disconnected regions instead preserve extremely low dynamic capillary pressures generated during the event. Snap-off due to these dynamic effects is not only controlled by the pore topography and throat radius, but also by the local fluid arrangement. Whereas disconnected fluid configurations produced by local snap-off were rapidly reconnected with the connected CO 2 region, distal snap-off produced much more long-lasting fluid configurations, showing that dynamic forces can have a persistent impact on the pattern and sequence of drainage events.

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“…Measurements of the external pressure, p, required to quantify the externally performed work, may be complemented by in situ estimation of the phase pressures; however, although this method is feasible in principle, it is still under development (37). This approach also includes the disconnected nonwetting phase clusters, through the measurement of the curvature in the liquidliquid menisci by image analysis and by calculating the pressure using the Laplace equation.…”

Section: Energy Dissipation and Upscalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-time 3D imaging of Haines jumps in porous media flow

Berg

Ott

Klapp

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

534

460

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Newly developed high-speed, synchrotron-based X-ray computed microtomography enabled us to directly image pore-scale displacement events in porous rock in real time. Common approaches to modeling macroscopic fluid behavior are phenomenological, have many shortcomings, and lack consistent links to elementary porescale displacement processes, such as Haines jumps and snap-off. Unlike the common singular pore jump paradigm based on observations of restricted artificial capillaries, we found that Haines jumps typically cascade through 10-20 geometrically defined pores per event, accounting for 64% of the energy dissipation. Real-time imaging provided a more detailed fundamental understanding of the elementary processes in porous media, such as hysteresis, snapoff, and nonwetting phase entrapment, and it opens the way for a rigorous process for upscaling based on thermodynamic models.hydrology | oil recovery | multiphase flow

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Linking pore-scale interfacial curvature to column-scale capillary pressure

Cited by 170 publications

References 20 publications

Critical capillary number: Desaturation studied with fast X‐ray computed microtomography

Critical capillary number: Desaturation studied with fast X‐ray computed microtomography

The Imaging of Dynamic Multiphase Fluid Flow Using Synchrotron-Based X-ray Microtomography at Reservoir Conditions

Real-time 3D imaging of Haines jumps in porous media flow

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