0000000000522606
AUTHOR
Leon Leu
From connected pathway flow to ganglion dynamics
During imbibition, initially connected oil is displaced until it is trapped as immobile clusters. While initial and final states have been well described before, here we image the dynamic transient process in a sandstone rock using fast synchrotron-based X-ray computed microtomography. Wetting film swelling and subsequent snap off, at unusually high saturation, decreases nonwetting phase connectivity, which leads to nonwetting phase fragmentation into mobile ganglia, i.e., ganglion dynamics regime. We find that in addition to pressure-driven connected pathway flow, mass transfer in the oil phase also occurs by a sequence of correlated breakup and coalescence processes. For example, meniscus…
Real-time 3D imaging of Haines jumps in porous media flow.
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 pore-scale 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 o…