Influence of wettability and saturation on liquid-liquid interfacial area in porous media
Influence of wettability and saturation on liquid-liquid interfacial area in porous media
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DOI：
10.1021/es020550s
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发表时间：
2003-02-01
影响因子：
11.4
通讯作者：
Sharma, M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jain, V;Bryant, S;Sharma, M
相之间的界面面积的知识是重要的理解和量化多孔介质中的许多流动和运输过程。在这项工作中，我们应用界面示踪技术来研究流体-流体界面面积的饱和度和润湿性的依赖关系。使用阴离子表面活性剂（3-苯基癸基苯磺酸盐）作为界面示踪剂，测量了疏松多孔介质（玻璃珠）中润湿相和非润湿相（盐水和癸烷）之间的界面面积。珠粒是水润湿的;用有机硅烷处理它们使它们油润湿。在一系列稳态分数流下进行测量，提供中间和残余饱和度下的数据。流速保持较低，以便毛细作用力控制流体构型。我们观察到显着差异的界面面积作为润湿相饱和度的函数的润湿性从水润湿到油润湿。在一次排水过程中，测得的界面面积随着水湿介质中水饱和度的降低而单调增加。相比之下，在油湿多孔介质中测量的界面面积随着癸烷饱和度的降低而增加，达到最大值，并随着残余癸烷饱和度的达到而减小。油湿实验是定性一致的理论结果，预测在排水过程中的流体-流体界面面积的最大值的存在。水湿实验与理论预测一致，包括已排水的孔隙中的颗粒面积。我们得出结论，在水润湿实验中，示踪剂吸附在非润湿相和颗粒上的润湿膜之间的界面处。在油湿实验中，油膜在高水饱和度下不持续，或者示踪剂不吸附在油膜上，这可能是由空间位阻阻止的。因此，界面示踪剂实验的解释需要注意：对于某些传质过程，颗粒上的润湿相薄膜的行为与润湿相的宏观体积不同。
The knowledge of the area of interfaces between phases is important to understand and quantify many flow and transport processes in porous media. In this work, we apply the interfacial tracer technique to study the dependence of fluid-fluid interfacial area on saturation and wettability. The interfacial area between the wetting and the nonwetting phases (brine and decane) in unconsolidated porous media (glass beads) was measured using an anionic surfactant (3-phenyl decyl benzene sulfonate) as an interfacial tracer. The beads are water-wet; treating them with organosilane rendered them oil-wet. The measurements were done at a series of steady-state fractional flows, providing data at intermediate as well as residual saturations. Flow rates were kept low so that capillary forces controlled the fluid configurations. We observe significant differences in interfacial areas as a function of wetting-phase saturation as the wettability is changed from water-wet to oil-wet. During primary drainage, measured interfacial area increases monotonically with decreasing water saturation in a water-wet medium. In contrast, the interfacial area measured in the oil-wet porous medium increases with decreasing decane saturation, reaches a maximum, and decreases as the residual decane saturation is achieved. The oil-wet experiment is qualitatively consistent with theoretical results that predict the existence of a maximum in fluid-fluid interfacial area during drainage. The water-wet experiment is consistent with theoretical predictions that include the area of grains in pores that have been drained. We conclude that, in the water-wet experiments, the tracer adsorbs at the interface between the nonwetting phase and the wetting films on grains. In the oil-wet experiments, either the oil films are not sustained at high water saturation or the tracer does not adsorb at them, possibly prevented by steric hindrance. Interpretation of interfacial tracer experiments therefore requires care: for some mass transport processes, the thin films of wetting phase on grains will not behave the same as macroscopic volumes of wetting phase.