Dynamic Wettability Alteration in Immiscible Two-phase Flow in Porous Media: Effect on Transport Properties and Critical Slowing Down

Frontiers in Physics

Flovik, Vegard¹  Hansen, Alex¹  Sinha, Santanu² 

[1] Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

关键词: Wettability;    Porous media;    porous media flow;    Fluid transport;    two-phase flow in porous media;    Two-phase flow;    Capillary forces;    Critical slowing down;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphy.2015.00086

学科分类：物理（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The change in contact angles due to the injection of low salinity water or any other wettability altering agent in an oil-rich porous medium is modeled by a network model of disordered pores transporting two immiscible fluids. We introduce a dynamic wettability altering mechanism, where the time dependent wetting property of each pore is determined by the cumulative flow of water through it. Simulations are performed to reach steady-state for different possible alterations in the wetting angle (θ). We find that deviation from oil-wet conditions re-mobilizes the stuck clusters and increases the oil fractional flow. However, the rate of increase in the fractional flow depends strongly on θ and as θ → 90◦ , a critical angle, the system shows critical slowing down which is characterized by two dynamic critical exponents.

【 授权许可】

CC BY