Displacement of residual nonwetting fluid from porous media

✍ Scribed by R.G. Larson; H.T. Davis; L.E. Scriven

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 969 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(81)80049-8

✦ Synopsis

Percolation theory of transport in random composites is used to explain the correlation between the residual saturation of nonwetting phase in porous media after displacement by a wetting phase and the capillary number, this number being a measure of the ratio of Darcy-law viscous force in the wetting liquid to interfacial tension force in curved menisci between the two phases. Statistical concepts of percolation theory give estimates of the length distribution of blobs created when the nonwetting phase loses continuity because of displacement by the wetting phase. These estimates agree with the few experimental data. Simple blob mobilization theory and experiments establish that the capillary number required to mobilize a blob is inversely proportional to its length in the direction of the Darcy-law pressure gradient; this and the predictions of percolation theory account for the observed capillary number correlation. lWltOWCTlON