Imperial College London
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ProfessorMartinBlunt

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Chair in Flow in Porous Media
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6500m.blunt Website

 
 
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Location

 

2.38ARoyal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{AlRatrout:2018:10.1073/pnas.1803734115,
author = {AlRatrout, A and Blunt, MJ and Bijeljic, B},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1803734115},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
pages = {8901--8906},
title = {Wettability in complex porous materials, the mixed-wet state, and its relationship to surface roughness},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803734115},
volume = {115},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - A quantitative in situ characterization of the impact of surface roughness on wettability in porous media is currently lacking. We use reservoir condition micrometer-resolution X-ray tomography combined with automated methods for the measurement of contact angle, interfacial curvature, and surface roughness to examine fluid/fluid and fluid/solid interfaces inside a porous material. We study oil and water in the pore space of limestone from a giant producing oilfield, acquiring millions of measurements of curvature and contact angle on three millimeter-sized samples. We identify a distinct wetting state with a broad distribution of contact angle at the submillimeter scale with a mix of water-wet and water-repellent regions. Importantly, this state allows both fluid phases to flow simultaneously over a wide range of saturation. We establish that, in media that are largely water wet, the interfacial curvature does not depend on solid surface roughness, quantified as the local deviation from a plane. However, where there has been a significant wettability alteration, rougher surfaces are associated with lower contact angles and higher interfacial curvature. The variation of both contact angle and interfacial curvature increases with the local degree of roughness. We hypothesize that this mixed wettability may also be seen in biological systems to facilitate the simultaneous flow of water and gases; furthermore, wettability-altering agents could be used in both geological systems and material science to design a mixed-wetting state with optimal process performance.
AU  - AlRatrout,A
AU  - Blunt,MJ
AU  - Bijeljic,B
DO  - 10.1073/pnas.1803734115
EP  - 8906
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 0027-8424
SP  - 8901
TI  - Wettability in complex porous materials, the mixed-wet state, and its relationship to surface roughness
T2  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803734115
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30120127
UR  - https://www.pnas.org/content/115/36/8901
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/61963
VL  - 115
ER  -
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