Pore-scale visualization and characterization of viscous dissipation in porous media

Roman, Sophie; Kovscek, A. R.; Kovscek, Anthony R.

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.09.072

Cited by 29 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…As a future direction of the current work, we can develop new microfluidic device with both geochemical and geophysical improvement, for instance, mimicking the dual porosity nature of Arab-D carbonate reservoir. Furthermore, it is worthwhile to perform in-depth study about pore-scale visualization and characterization of viscous dissipation at the moving contact line (MCL) 58 within ROC to understand the effects of mutual transfer of momentum between two immiscible flowing fluids on hydrocarbon displacement efficiency 59 . Figure 8.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Reservoir-on-a-Chip: Rapid Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Surfactants for Carbonate Reservoirs Using a Calcite-Coated Micromodel

Yun

Chang

Cogswell

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) plays a significant role in improving oil production. Tertiary EOR, including surfactant flooding, can potentially mobilize residual oil after water flooding. Prior to the field deployment, the surfactant performance must be evaluated using site-specific crude oil at reservoir conditions. Core flood experiments are common practice to evaluate surfactants for oil displacement efficiency using core samples. Core flood experiments, however, are expensive and time-consuming and do not allow for pore scale observations of fluid-fluid interactions. This work introduces the framework to evaluate the performance of EOR surfactants via a Reservoir-on-a-Chip approach, which uses microfluidic devices to mimic the oil reservoir. A unique feature of this study is the use of chemically modified micromodels such that the pore surfaces are representative of carbonate reservoir rock. To represent calcium carbonate reservoir pores, the inner channels of glass microfluidic devices were coated with thin layers of calcium carbonate nanocrystals and the surface was modified to exhibit oil-wet conditions through a crude oil aging process. During surfactant screening, oil and water phases were imaged by fluorescence microscopy to reveal the micro to macro scale mechanisms controlling surfactant-assisted oil recovery. The role of the interfacial tension (IFT) and wettability in the microfluidic device was simulated using a phase-field model and compared to laboratory results. We demonstrated the effect of low IFT at the oil-water interface and wettability alteration on surfactant-enhanced oil displacement efficiency; thus providing a time-efficient and low-cost strategy for quantitative and qualitative assessment. In addition, this framework is an effective method for prescreening EOR surfactants for use in carbonate reservoirs prior to further core and field scale testing. Crude oil is used to produce gasoline and petrochemicals that are later used to manufacture a variety of consumer goods. Therefore, oil production significantly affects the global economy and as such, improving oil recovery is a high priority 1. Oil recovery is initiated by a geological investigation to identify oil and gas reservoirs. Once reservoirs are identified, injector and producer wells are drilled in strategic locations. During primary hydrocarbon recovery (depletion), reservoir pressure drives hydrocarbons from the reservoir to the surface through the complex pore network of the reservoir rock. In many cases, primary recovery is followed by secondary recovery where water is injected to push hydrocarbons to the producer wells. Rock properties, including wettability, capillarity, and permeability, vary and affect hydrocarbon recovery efficiency. Typically, only 30-50% of original oil

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Reservoir-on-a-Chip: Rapid Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Surfactants for Carbonate Reservoirs Using a Calcite-Coated Micromodel

Yun

Chang

Cogswell

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…As the seeding particles in µPIV are small compared to the wavelength of the illuminating light, either fluorescent imaging or efficient image acquisition and processing [ 171 , 173 ] are required. The quality of µPIV measurements and the resolution of µPIV systems have been improved through further developments in measurement method, interrogation techniques and filtering schemes [ 174 , 175 , 176 ].…”

Section: Imaging Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Study of fluid movement in certain pores and across the entire micromodel was possible due to integration of small and large FOV modules with the apparatus. Most recently and for the first time, Roman et al [ 173 ] investigated the magnitude of the interfacial momentum transfer force for different flow conditions using a μPIV experimental set-up.…”

Section: Imaging Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Microfluidic Devices and Imaging Techniques for Fluid Flow Study in Porous Geomaterials

Jahanbakhsh

Wlodarczyk

Hand

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Understanding transport phenomena and governing mechanisms of different physical and chemical processes in porous media has been a critical research area for decades. Correlating fluid flow behaviour at the micro-scale with macro-scale parameters, such as relative permeability and capillary pressure, is key to understanding the processes governing subsurface systems, and this in turn allows us to improve the accuracy of modelling and simulations of transport phenomena at a large scale. Over the last two decades, there have been significant developments in our understanding of pore-scale processes and modelling of complex underground systems. Microfluidic devices (micromodels) and imaging techniques, as facilitators to link experimental observations to simulation, have greatly contributed to these achievements. Although several reviews exist covering separately advances in one of these two areas, we present here a detailed review integrating recent advances and applications in both micromodels and imaging techniques. This includes a comprehensive analysis of critical aspects of fabrication techniques of micromodels, and the most recent advances such as embedding fibre optic sensors in micromodels for research applications. To complete the analysis of visualization techniques, we have thoroughly reviewed the most applicable imaging techniques in the area of geoscience and geo-energy. Moreover, the integration of microfluidic devices and imaging techniques was highlighted as appropriate. In this review, we focus particularly on four prominent yet very wide application areas, namely “fluid flow in porous media”, “flow in heterogeneous rocks and fractures”, “reactive transport, solute and colloid transport”, and finally “porous media characterization”. In summary, this review provides an in-depth analysis of micromodels and imaging techniques that can help to guide future research in the in-situ visualization of fluid flow in porous media.

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“…Specifically, pore-scale investigation is a strong tool that can shed light on the subsurface process at the microscale. To investigate the physics of fluid flow at pore-scale, 2D glass micromodels can be used in conjunction with fluorescence microscopy and micro-particle image velocimetry (micro PIV) to directly observe and measure the pore-scale processes (Jiménez-Martínez et al, 2017;Roman et al, 2019Roman et al, , 2016. Roman et al (2016) investigated the velocity profiles in two-phase flow through the heterogeneous sandstone-replica micromodel using micro PIV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, they have not discussed the role of displacement mechanism and fluid configurations on the recirculation process. Also, in the case of experimental investigations (Kazemifar et al, 2016;Roman et al, 2019Roman et al, , 2016Zarikos et al, 2018), the velocity profile is only presented inside the trapped phase. Maes et al (2018) investigated the role of recirculation phenomena on the mass transfer process for various viscosity ratios; however, they did not consider the effects of injection velocity and surface tension as other dynamic parameters involved in the capillary number.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct numerical simulation of trapped-phase recirculation at low capillary number

Alamooti

Azizi

Davarzani

2020

Advances in Water Resources

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Understanding multiphase flow in porous media, especially how velocity is distributed at the pore-scale, has been the aim of several studies. However, these studies address the recirculation behavior inside the trapped phase experimentally without any comprehensive numerical study of the impact of different governing mechanisms related to the fluid configurations and properties, including drag force and capillary number analysis at low capillary number regime. In this study, we analyzed the recirculation phenomenon inside the trapped phase for various displacement mechanisms, fluid configurations, and dynamic properties. To simulate the porescale displacement at low capillary number, we used a filtered surface-force formulation of volume of fluid method, which was implemented in a separately available solver for OpenFoam Nomenclature Subscripts List of symbols Average ave Bond number (-) Bo Boundary b Capillary number (-) Ca Capillary term c Drag force per unit of depth (N/m) D Dynamic d Force vector (N) f Filter filt Gravity vector (m/s 2) g Invading i Interface curvature (1/m) k Injection inj Characteristic length (m) L Interface I Length (m) l Magnitude mag Viscosity ratio (-) M Non-wetting phase nw Unit normal (-) n Smooth s Pressure (Pa) P Sharp shp Time (s) t Sharp Surface Force SSF Velocity (m/s) U Trapping phase t Cartesian coordinate system (m) x, y Wetting phase w Coordinate plane x, y Coefficients and constants Greek symbols Capillary force filter Volume fraction of fluids (-) Sharp VOF's color function ℎ Dirac delta function (-) FSF time step constant Viscosity (Pa. s) Density (kg/m 3) Surface tension (N/m)

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Pore-scale visualization and characterization of viscous dissipation in porous media

Cited by 29 publications

References 52 publications

Toward Reservoir-on-a-Chip: Rapid Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Surfactants for Carbonate Reservoirs Using a Calcite-Coated Micromodel

Toward Reservoir-on-a-Chip: Rapid Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Surfactants for Carbonate Reservoirs Using a Calcite-Coated Micromodel

Review of Microfluidic Devices and Imaging Techniques for Fluid Flow Study in Porous Geomaterials

Direct numerical simulation of trapped-phase recirculation at low capillary number

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