Non-wetting phase saturation after drainage from the wetting-phase-filled porous medium

  • SUEKANE Tetsuya
    Department of Energy Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology
  • SAITO Yusuke
    Department of Energy Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology
  • JIANG Lanlan
    Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology

Abstract

Understanding and predicting the efficiency of displacement, i.e., the non-wetting phase saturation after drainage, is of great importance in many practical applications. In this study, we experimentally derive the empirical equations of the non-wetting phase saturation as a function of the capillary number, the Bond number, and the viscosity ratio. A series of laboratory experiments are conducted with a packed bed of glass beads. Several fluid pairs are used to change the viscosity ratio. However, the density of the non-wetting phase is lower than that of the wetting phase for all pairs. In the case of vertically upward injection, the non-wetting phase saturation decreases with the Bond number and increases with the capillary number for all fluid pairs. In the case of the unfavorable viscosity ratio, the non-wetting phase saturation is low because the displacement interface is always unstable. At a low capillary number, the capillary fingering enhanced by buoyancy results in low non-wetting phase saturation. In the case of the downward injection, if the viscosity ratio is favorable, the displacement front is always stable against the Darcy velocity. If the viscosity ratio is unfavorable, the displacement front is stable for low Darcy velocity, when the non-wetting phase saturation is high. When the Darcy velocity exceeds the critical velocity, the non-wetting phase saturation reduces.

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