Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media
We study the gravity-exchange flow of two immiscible fluids in a porous medium and show that, in contrast with the miscible case, a portion of the initial interface remains pinned at all times. We elucidate, by means of micromodel experiments, the pore-level mechanism responsible for capillary pinni...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Physical Society
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78313 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2525-3779 |
| _version_ | 1826204928804126720 |
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| author | Zhao, Benzhong MacMinn, Christopher W. Szulczewski, Michael Lawrence Neufeld, Jerome A. Huppert, Herbert E. Juanes, Ruben |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Zhao, Benzhong MacMinn, Christopher W. Szulczewski, Michael Lawrence Neufeld, Jerome A. Huppert, Herbert E. Juanes, Ruben |
| author_sort | Zhao, Benzhong |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We study the gravity-exchange flow of two immiscible fluids in a porous medium and show that, in contrast with the miscible case, a portion of the initial interface remains pinned at all times. We elucidate, by means of micromodel experiments, the pore-level mechanism responsible for capillary pinning at the macroscale. We propose a sharp-interface gravity-current model that incorporates capillarity and quantitatively explains the experimental observations, including the x∼t[superscript 1/2] spreading behavior at intermediate times and the fact that capillarity stops a finite-release current. Our theory and experiments suggest that capillary pinning is potentially an important, yet unexplored, trapping mechanism during CO[subscript 2] sequestration in deep saline aquifers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:03:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/78313 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:03:36Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/783132022-09-28T11:47:58Z Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media Zhao, Benzhong MacMinn, Christopher W. Szulczewski, Michael Lawrence Neufeld, Jerome A. Huppert, Herbert E. Juanes, Ruben Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering Zhao, Benzhong MacMinn, Christopher W. Szulczewski, Michael Lawrence Juanes, Ruben We study the gravity-exchange flow of two immiscible fluids in a porous medium and show that, in contrast with the miscible case, a portion of the initial interface remains pinned at all times. We elucidate, by means of micromodel experiments, the pore-level mechanism responsible for capillary pinning at the macroscale. We propose a sharp-interface gravity-current model that incorporates capillarity and quantitatively explains the experimental observations, including the x∼t[superscript 1/2] spreading behavior at intermediate times and the fact that capillarity stops a finite-release current. Our theory and experiments suggest that capillary pinning is potentially an important, yet unexplored, trapping mechanism during CO[subscript 2] sequestration in deep saline aquifers. United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-SC0003907) United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-FE0002041) Masdar Institute of Science and Technology 2013-04-09T21:06:38Z 2013-04-09T21:06:38Z 2013-02 2013-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1539-3755 1550-2376 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78313 Zhao, Benzhong et al. “Interface Pinning of Immiscible Gravity-exchange Flows in Porous Media.” Physical Review E 87.2 (2013). ©2013 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2525-3779 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.023015 Physical Review E Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society APS |
| spellingShingle | Zhao, Benzhong MacMinn, Christopher W. Szulczewski, Michael Lawrence Neufeld, Jerome A. Huppert, Herbert E. Juanes, Ruben Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media |
| title | Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media |
| title_full | Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media |
| title_fullStr | Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media |
| title_short | Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media |
| title_sort | interface pinning of immiscible gravity exchange flows in porous media |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78313 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-2332 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2525-3779 |
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