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Pore-scale investigation of immiscible displacement process in porous media under high-frequency sound waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2011

KHOSROW NADERI  and
TAYFUN BABADAGLI
KHOSROW NADERI
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, 3-112 Markin CNRL-NREF, Edmonton, AB T6G 2W2, Canada
TAYFUN BABADAGLI*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, 3-112 Markin CNRL-NREF, Edmonton, AB T6G 2W2, Canada
*
†Email address for correspondence: tayfun@ualberta.ca
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Abstract

Although experimental and theoretical studies have been performed to identify the effects of elastic waves on multi-phase flow in porous structures, the literature lacks finely tuned experiments at the micro-scale. This paper reports observations and critical analysis of immiscible displacement in micro-scale porous media under ultrasonic energy. A number of experiments are performed on homogeneous and heterogeneous micromodels for varying wave frequency and power, initial water saturation, wettability and injection rates. We show that ultrasonic radiation influences the displacement pattern and yields lower residual non-wetting phase (oil) behind when low injection rates are applied. Higher wave frequency results in faster recovery of oil, but the ultimate recovery is controlled mainly by wave intensity. The presence of initial water saturation has a positive effect on the displacement, especially in an oil-wet medium. Of the possible mechanisms suggested for recovery enhancement under ultrasonic radiation, deformation of pore walls and change in fluid properties due to heating are not an issue in these experiments but other mechanisms including coalescence of oil droplets under oscillation, reduction of wetting films, adherence to grains and the peristaltic movement of fluids due to mechanical vibration were observed to be effective and are discussed in the analysis of the visual observations.

JFM classification

Waves/Free-surface Flows: Elastic waves Micro-/Nano-fluid dynamics: Microfluidics Low-Reynolds-number flows: Porous media
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 680 , 10 August 2011 , pp. 336 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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