title: Effects of shear-thinning fluids on residual oil formation in microfluidic pore networks.
abstract: Two-phase immiscible displacement in porous media is controlled by capillary and viscous forces when gravitational effects are negligible. The relative importance of these forces is quantified through the dimensionless capillary number Ca and the viscosity ratio M between fluid phases. When the displacing fluid is Newtonian, the effects of Ca and M on the displacement patterns can be evaluated independently. However, when the injecting fluids exhibit shear-thinning viscosity behaviour the values of M and Ca are interdependent. Under these conditions, the effects on phase entrapment and the general displacement dynamics cannot be dissociated. In the particular case of shear-thinning aqueous polymer solutions, the degree of interdependence between M and Ca is determined by the polymer concentration. In this work, two-phase immiscible displacement experiments were performed in micromodels, using shear-thinning aqueous polymer solutions as displacing fluids, to investigate the effect of polymer concentration on the relationship between Ca and M, the recovery efficiency, and the size distribution of the trapped non-wetting fluid. Our results show that the differences in terms of magnitude and distribution of the trapped phase are related to the polymer concentration which influences the values of Ca and M.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez de Castro
authors.affiliation: Energy & Environment Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Mart
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oostrom
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: nima.shokri@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shokri
keywords: Immiscible displacement; Microfluidic analysis; Oil recovery; Polymer flooding; Shear-thinning fluids