Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Pi, Haohong, Omari, Abdelaziz, Sciumè, Giuseppe
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02296
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866910772484898816
author Pi, Haohong
Omari, Abdelaziz
Sciumè, Giuseppe
author_facet Pi, Haohong
Omari, Abdelaziz
Sciumè, Giuseppe
contents Understanding the pore-scale dynamics of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media is crucial 9 for optimizing EOR strategies. In this work, we investigate the mobilization dynamics of oil clusters by 10 means of microfluidic devices that allow pore scale direct characterization of flow in water-wet chips. We varied both flow rates during waterflooding and the viscosity ratio by injecting Glycerol/water mixtures of various compositions right after the waterflooding period. During waterflooding, the flow rate has only a limited impact on residual oil. With a subsequent injection of a Glycerol/water mixture, the oil recovery is significantly enhanced. To better understand the recovery mechanisms, oil clusters were categorized into droplets, blobs and ganglia. Increasing the viscosity of the injected mixture resulted in only a slight reduction in the number of ganglia but significantly decreased their total volume, thus reducing overall oil saturation. This is due to ganglia breakup into smaller ganglia, blobs and droplets that are subsequently mobilized and transported away, while remaining parts of original ganglia still remain trapped. As long as droplets and blobs are considered, their number is seen to only weakly change by the increase of mixture viscosity and even their number may temporarily increase as they result from ganglia rupture. So, the process can be separated in two main steps: ganglia breakage that feed the medium in blobs and droplets and a second step where such moving oil entities are transported. The characteristic time for oil transport is believed to be longer than that required for ganglia breakage.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_02296
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tertiary EOR-like microfluidic experiments: influence of viscosity ratio on oil clusters mobilization
Pi, Haohong
Omari, Abdelaziz
Sciumè, Giuseppe
Fluid Dynamics
Understanding the pore-scale dynamics of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media is crucial 9 for optimizing EOR strategies. In this work, we investigate the mobilization dynamics of oil clusters by 10 means of microfluidic devices that allow pore scale direct characterization of flow in water-wet chips. We varied both flow rates during waterflooding and the viscosity ratio by injecting Glycerol/water mixtures of various compositions right after the waterflooding period. During waterflooding, the flow rate has only a limited impact on residual oil. With a subsequent injection of a Glycerol/water mixture, the oil recovery is significantly enhanced. To better understand the recovery mechanisms, oil clusters were categorized into droplets, blobs and ganglia. Increasing the viscosity of the injected mixture resulted in only a slight reduction in the number of ganglia but significantly decreased their total volume, thus reducing overall oil saturation. This is due to ganglia breakup into smaller ganglia, blobs and droplets that are subsequently mobilized and transported away, while remaining parts of original ganglia still remain trapped. As long as droplets and blobs are considered, their number is seen to only weakly change by the increase of mixture viscosity and even their number may temporarily increase as they result from ganglia rupture. So, the process can be separated in two main steps: ganglia breakage that feed the medium in blobs and droplets and a second step where such moving oil entities are transported. The characteristic time for oil transport is believed to be longer than that required for ganglia breakage.
title Tertiary EOR-like microfluidic experiments: influence of viscosity ratio on oil clusters mobilization
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02296