Rheological Transition during Foam Flow in Porous Media

The flow of nitrogen foam in Bentheimer sandstone cores previously saturated with a surfactant solution has been investigated experimentally. The displacement process was visualized with the aid of a computed tomography (CT) scanner. CT data were analyzed to obtain water saturation profiles at diffe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIndustrial & engineering chemistry research Vol. 51; no. 30; pp. 10225 - 10231
Main Authors Simjoo, M, Nguyen, Q. P, Zitha, P. L. J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC American Chemical Society 01.08.2012
Subjects
Applied sciences
Chemical engineering
Exact sciences and technology
Foams
Foundry sands
Mathematical models
Pressure drop
Rheological properties
Sandstone
Saturation
Surfactants
Foam
Porous medium
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Summary:The flow of nitrogen foam in Bentheimer sandstone cores previously saturated with a surfactant solution has been investigated experimentally. The displacement process was visualized with the aid of a computed tomography (CT) scanner. CT data were analyzed to obtain water saturation profiles at different times. Pressure drops measured over core segments were recorded to determine foam mobility. It was found that foam undergoes a sharp transition from a weak to a strong state at a critical gas saturation of S gc = 0.75 ± 0.02. This effect was interpreted successfully by the rise of foam yield stress as gas saturation exceeds the S gc. It is suggested that confined jamming is the most likely mechanism responsible for the mobility transition.
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ISSN:0888-5885
1520-5045
DOI:10.1021/ie202218z