Flow enhancement of water-based nanoparticle dispersion through microscale sedimentary rocks.
Understanding and controlling fluids flow at the microscale is a matter of growing scientific and technological interest. Flow enhancements of water-based nanoparticle dispersions through microscale porous media are investigated through twelve hydrophilic sedimentary rocks with pore-throat radius between 1.2 and 10 μm, which are quantitatively explained with a simple model with slip length correction for Darcy flow. Both as wetting phase, water exhibited no-slip Darcy flow in all cores; however, flow enhancement of nanoparticle dispersions can be up to 5.7 times larger than that of water, and it increases with the decreasing of pore-throat radius. The experimental data reveals characteristic slip lengths are of order 500 and 1000 nm for 3M® and HNPs-1 nanoparticles, respectively, independent of the lithology or nanoparticle concentration or shear rate. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of flow degradation is observed for HNPs-2 nanoparticles. These results explore the feasible application of using nanoparticle dispersions to control flow at the microscale.
MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing. 102249, P.R. China.
Haiyang
H
Yu
MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing. 102249, P.R. China.
Youwei
Y
He
MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing. 102249, P.R. China.
Peng
P
Li
MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing. 102249, P.R. China.
Shuang
S
Li
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 78712, USA.
Tiantian
T
Zhang
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 78712, USA.
Elena
E
Rodriguez-Pin
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A &M University, Collage Station, TX. 77843, USA.
Song
S
Du
Yanchang Oilfield Co., Ltd. Yan'an, Shanxi. 716000, P.R. China.
Chenglong
C
Wang
MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing. 102249, P.R. China.
Shiqing
S
Cheng
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 78712, USA.
Christopher W
CW
Bielawski
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 78712, USA.
Steven L
SL
Bryant
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 78712, USA.
Chun
C
Huh