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The separation of liquid and gas phases using porous media has been considered for various applications such as propellent management in aerospace, petroleum engineering, carbon storage and so on. However, such a process is usually difficult to model as the multiphase flow involving porous media usually spans several characteristic lengths, and the interface conditions between the free fluid...
This work proposes a mathematical model to study the foam displacement in porous media stabilized by nanoparticles [1]. We consider a simplification of the Stochastic Bubble Population balance model in local equilibrium, with nanoparticle dependence inspired by the experimental data from the literature. It consists of a non-strictly hyperbolic system of conservation laws, which is solved for...
Haines jump is an interfacial instability characterized by fluid redistribution and sudden pressure changes. It is a pore-scale phenomenon that occurs during displacement front movement and is widespread in multiphase flow processes in porous media. It is an essential physical process that affects fluid distribution, flow regimes, and displacement efficiency. Previous studies have shown that...
With the deepening of oil and gas resources exploration and development, drilling wells will encounter various problems, especially the leakage problem, which will lead to a substantial increase in drilling costs. At the same time, the uncertainty of the leakage channel in the process of reservoir leakage not only has a great impact on the drilling efficiency but also causes a large amount of...
This work aims to explore the properties and interactions between binary surfactant systems due to their ability to form mixed micelles with lower interfacial tension (IFT). The focus is on determining the synergistic or antagonistic behaviors of these systems for effective application in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in carbonate oil fields. Our study employed a methodology comprising...
Surface wettability determines the property of a solid surface in contact with a fluid. It plays a major role in reservoir engineering applications involving fluid transport phenomena. For example, it is critical to hydrocarbon recovery where wettability not only influences the sweep efficiency, but also influences the remaining oil distribution. Since the wettability tends to affect the...
Equilibrium contact angle depends on both the chemistry of the two fluids and solid base, and the microstructure on the solid surface. Actual surface of the pore wall in porous media is typically rough and curved, which has not been well-considered in related applications. This work uses a free interfacial energy minimization approach to theoretically derive the equilibrium contact angle on...
Geological CO2 storage involves injecting captured CO2 into various geological formations, in which saline aquifers have the largest storage potential around the world. In the context of carbon neutrality, one of the key issues is to store CO2 as much as possible on the premise of formation stability. In this paper, we find that external electric field can enhance CO2 storage in saline...
Quick clay is a young geological clay formation and has been formed during the last glacial ice age. Due to the isomorphic substitutions in these phyllo-silicates, their flat surfaces are net negatively charged (1). The Na+ cations which come from the main salt in the marine environment (35g/L) is attracted by the negatively charged surface and neutralizes it. As a result, the particles have a...
The interface between liquid and vapor phases within porous media plays a pivotal role in enhanced vapor diffusion and water evaporation. The liquid-vapor interfaces can be classified into internal interfaces (pertaining to vapor diffusion) and external interfaces (associated with phase change) based on their distinct mechanisms. However, the intricate geometric and topological complexities...
Visualization experiments are performed to disclose the salt precipitation and gas-liquid displacement in microfluidic pore networks during evaporation. Two forms of salt precipitation are revealed: aggregated polycrystalline structures and large bulk crystals. It is found that gas bubbles can be formed because of imbibition of liquid into aggregated polycrystalline structures. The length of a...
Nanoparticle-enhanced carbonated water (NP-enhanced CW) is a novel and promising injection agent for coupled enhanced heavy oil (HO) recovery and CO2 storage. The main objective of this study is to investigate the interfacial tension reduction mechanism by nanoparticles (NPs) at HO-CW interface from molecular dynamics approaches. The influences of NPs on the Interfacial tension of HO-CW...
Ganglia (bubbles, or droplets) are widespread in porous media of various industrial applications. Thermodynamic properties of a ganglion, including its volume ($V$), surface free energy ($F$), and capillary pressure ($P_{c}$), play pivotal roles in determining its transport and reactive performance. Although these properties in homogeneous porous media have been recently resolved [1, 2],...
