Imperial College London
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DrBrankoBijeljic

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Principal Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6420b.bijeljic

 
 
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Location

 

2.53Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Alhosani:2021:10.1007/s11242-021-01595-1,
author = {Alhosani, A and Bijeljic, B and Blunt, MJ},
doi = {10.1007/s11242-021-01595-1},
journal = {Transport in Porous Media},
pages = {59--84},
title = {Pore-scale imaging and analysis of wettability order, trapping and displacement in three-phase flow in porous media with various wettabilities},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11242-021-01595-1},
volume = {140},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Three-phase flow in porous media is encountered in many applications including subsurface carbon dioxide storage, enhanced oil recovery, groundwater remediation and the design of microfluidic devices. However, the pore-scale physics that controls three-phase flow under capillary dominated conditions is still not fully understood. Recent advances in three-dimensional pore-scale imaging have provided new insights into three-phase flow. Based on these findings, this paper describes the key pore-scale processes that control flow and trapping in a three-phase system, namely wettability order, spreading and wetting layers, and double/multiple displacement events. We show that in a porous medium containing water, oil and gas, the behaviour is controlled by wettability, which can either be water-wet, weakly oil-wet or strongly oil-wet, and by gas–oil miscibility. We provide evidence that, for the same wettability state, the three-phase pore-scale events are different under near-miscible conditions—where the gas–oil interfacial tension is ≤ 1 mN/m—compared to immiscible conditions. In a water-wet system, at immiscible conditions, water is the most-wetting phase residing in the corners of the pore space, gas is the most non-wetting phase occupying the centres, while oil is the intermediate-wet phase spreading in layers sandwiched between water and gas. This fluid configuration allows for double capillary trapping, which can result in more gas trapping than for two-phase flow. At near-miscible conditions, oil and gas appear to become neutrally wetting to each other, preventing oil from spreading in layers; instead, gas and oil compete to occupy the centre of the larger pores, while water remains connected in wetting layers in the corners. This allows for the rapid production of oil since it is no longer confined to movement in thin layers. In a weakly oil-wet system, at immiscible conditions, the wettability order is oil–water–gas
AU  - Alhosani,A
AU  - Bijeljic,B
AU  - Blunt,MJ
DO  - 10.1007/s11242-021-01595-1
EP  - 84
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 0169-3913
SP  - 59
TI  - Pore-scale imaging and analysis of wettability order, trapping and displacement in three-phase flow in porous media with various wettabilities
T2  - Transport in Porous Media
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11242-021-01595-1
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000644275100001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11242-021-01595-1
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/89448
VL  - 140
ER  -
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