A 2.5-D glass micromodel for investigation of multi-phase flow in porous media.
We developed a novel method for fabrication of glass micromodels with varying depth (2.5-D) with no additional complexity over the 2-D micromodels' fabrication. Compared to a 2-D micromodel, the 2.5-D micromodel can better represent the 3-D features of multi-phase flow in real porous media, as demonstrated in this paper with three different examples. Physically realistic capillary snap-off and the formation of isolated residual oil droplets were realized, which is not possible in 2-D micromodels. Droplet size variation during an emulsion flooding was investigated on the 2.5-D micromodel, showing that the droplet size decreases sharply at the inlet, with little change in size downstream of the micromodel. Displacement of light oil with ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT) surfactant was conducted in the 2.5-D micromodel, where we were able to visualize the generation and flowing of a microemulsion phase, which agrees with, and explains observations in experiments of more complex porous media.
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. zpeixi@utexas.edu.
Ke
K
Xu
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. zpeixi@utexas.edu.
Tianbo
T
Liang
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. zpeixi@utexas.edu.
Peixi
0000-0002-4204-5667
P
Zhu
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. zpeixi@utexas.edu.
Pengpeng
P
Qi
McDougall School of Petroleum Engineering, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA.
Jun
J
Lu
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. zpeixi@utexas.edu.
Chun
C
Huh
Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. zpeixi@utexas.edu.
Matthew
M
Balhoff