Research Theme 6: Microfluidics and field studies

Objective:
Develop new methods for determination of wettability in porous media from pore scale images. Establish experimental support for the multi-phase flow theories developed in WP1 by pore scale imaging of flow. Characterize multiphase flow for various characteristics of porous media, including pore structure and wetting states, and their relations to trapping.


Figure: Testing flooding efficiency; Oil (dark purple) trapped after water flooding (light purple) in a 2D glass micromodel. Picture courtesy: Georg J. B. Voss. Department of Geoscience and Petroleum, NTNU

Description:

Wettability has a first order effect on multi-phase flow and trapping in porous media. However, wettability in complex porous media is not well described and the protocols of wetting state measurements are too simple to be fully descriptive for two-phase flow. Measurements of the contact angle on a substrate or the wettability index in spontaneous imbibition and centrifuge experiments do not provide good predictability for description of two-phase flow in porous media.

In this work package we will develop several methods (experimental and numerical) for wettability characterization, including direct image analysis and a thermodynamic approach based on pore scale observations of changes in fluid distribution versus applied work. We propose to study phase distribution and multi-phase flow properties as a function of wettability, pore structure and fluid-solid interactions, starting from glass bead packs imaged by micro-CT and glass micro-models or lab-on-chip microfluidics. The focus will be to understand pore scale fluid-phase distribution and trapping under different wettability, pore structure and mobility conditions. The learning from the developed methods and observations will be extended to two-phase flow experiments in various natural and industrial porous media.

Deliverables:

Elucidation and determination of the role of wettability in determining the macroscopic flow properties.

New methods for wettability characterization and determination.

Experimental support for statistical mechanics description of multi-phase flow in homogeneous porous material

Investigators

Principal Investigator Research Theme 6: Carl Fredrik Berg.

Partners:
Antje van der Net, Eirik Grude Flekkøy, Alex Hansen, Signe Kjelstrup, Dick Bedeaux, Knut Jørgen Måløy, Dag Breiby

Researcher:
Per Arne Slotte.

PD:
Hamidreza Erfani Gahrooei, Hamid Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Rasoul Khaledialidust, Haili Long-Sanouiller.

PhD:
Reza Haghanihasanabadi, Mohammad Hossein Golestan, Morten Vassvik, Reidun Cecilie Grønfur Aadland, Alberto Luis Bila, Bahador Najafiazar, Salem Akarri

Selected articles:

  1. Carl Fredrik Berg, W David Kennedy, David C Herrick, Conductivity in partially saturated porous media described by porosity, electrolyte saturation and saturation‐dependent tortuosity and constriction factor, Geophysical Prospecting 70 (2), 2022.
  2. Kurdistan Chawshin, Carl Fredrik Berg, Damiano Varagnolo, Olivier Lopez, Automated porosity estimation using CT-scans of extracted core data, Computational Geosciences 26(3), 2022.
  3. Danial Arab, Apostolos Kantzas, Ole Torsæter, Salem Akarri, Steven L Bryant, A Crucial Role of the Applied Capillary Pressure in Drainage Displacement, SPE Journal, 26(04), 2021.
  4. Sondre Gjengedal, Vegard Brøtan, Ole T Buset, Erik Larsen, Olav Å Berg, Ole Torsæter, Randi K Ramstad, Bernt O Hilmo, Bjørn S Frengstad, Fluid flow through 3D-printed particle beds: a new technique for understanding, validating, and improving predictability of permeability from empirical equations, Transport in Porous Media, 134(1), 2020.
  5. Hamid Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Per Arne Slotte, Carl Fredrik Berg, Contact angles in two-phase flow images, Transport in Porous Media 135(3), 2020.
  6. Carl Fredrik Berg, Per Arne Slotte, Hamid Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Geometrically derived efficiency of slow immiscible displacement in porous media, Physical Review E, 102(3), 2020.
  7. Per Arne Slotte, Carl Fredrik Berg, Hamid Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Predicting resistivity and permeability of porous media using Minkowski functionals, Transport in Porous Media, 131(2), 2020.
  8. Hamid Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Carl Fredrik Berg, Per Arne Slotte, Steffen Schlüter, Ole Torsæter, Description of free energy for immiscible two‐fluid flow in porous media by integral geometry and thermodynamics, Water Resources Research, 54(11), 2018

Lectures at international conferences:

  1. Berg, Carl Fredrik; Slotte, Per Arne; Long-Sanouiller, Haili; Gahrooei, Hamidreza Erfani. Approximating free energy change for imaged displacement processes to assess wettability. Interpore Norway 4th National Workshop, 2021.
  2. Kjelstrup, Signe; Bedeaux, Dick; Galteland, Olav; Rauter, Michael Tobias; Berg, Carl Fredrik; Hansen, Alex. Energy dissipation as heat in porous media flow. InterPore 2021.
  3. Kjelstrup, Signe; Bedeaux, Dick; Gjennestad, Magnus Aashammer; Rauter, Michael Tobias; Berg, Carl Fredrik; Hansen, Alex. From Pore Scale to Darcy Scale with Entropy Production as Tool. SIAM Conference on Mathematical & Computational Methods in Geoscience, GS21, 2021.
  4. Yan, Lifei; Golestan, Mohammad Hossein; Zhou, Wenyu; Hassanizadeh, S. Majid; Berg, Carl Fredrik. Impact of osmosis and emulsification on constrained oil remobilization in pore-scale experiments. InterPore2021 Online Conference, 2021.
  5. Berg, Carl Fredrik. Wettability and efficiency of quasi-static displacements. Njord seminar, 2021.
  6. Omran, Mohamed Ahmed Fathy Abdelshafy; Berg, Carl Fredrik. Applying new rock typing methods, and modelling for conventional & unconventional reservoirs. International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2020.
  7. Golestan, Mohammad Hossein; Fazelabdolabadi, Babak. Towards Bayesian quantification of permeability in micro-scale porous structures – Sandstones and Carbonates. InterPore2019 Valencia, 2019.
  8. Golestan, Mohammad Hossein; Hashemi, Leila. Wettability Alteration Modeling by Pore Network Approach for Low-salinity Water Injection Process. InterPore2019 Valencia, 2019.
  9. Golestan, Mohammad Hossein; Olav, Aursjø; Carl Fredrik, Berg; Eirik, Flekkøy; Espen, Jettestuen. Lattice-Boltzmann modeling of osmosis during low-salinity flooding. InterPore2019 Valencia, 2019.
  10. Golestan, Mohammad Hossein; Esmaeelipoor Jahromi, Omid; Ravi, Patel; Amani, Mohammad Javad; Ghaedi, Mojtaba. Grid convergence studies for lattice Boltzmann method based porescale reactive transport models. InterPore2019 Valencia, 2019.
  11. Golestan, Mohammad Hossein; Alves-Filho, Odilio; Fazelabdolabadi, Babak; Carl Fredrik, Berg; Goncharova-Alves, Svetlana. Micro-scale investigation of the drying process in porous media – A computational fluid dynamics approach. Third Nordic Baltic Drying Conference, 2019.
  12. Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Hamid; Berg, Carl Fredrik; Slotte, Per Arne; Torsæter, Ole; Schlüter, Steffen. Energy Description for Immiscible Two-Fluid Flow in Porous Media by Integral Geometry and Thermodynamics. European Fluid Mechanics Conference (EFMC2018).
  13. Pollen, Erik Norrud; Berg, Carl Fredrik. Experimental Investigation of Osmosis as a Mechanism for Low-Salinity EOR. Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference, 2018.
  14. Berg, Carl Fredrik. Can Minkowski functionals describe energy change during quasi-static displacement? Interpore 2nd National Workshop on Porous Media, 2018.
  15. Aadland, Reidun Cecilie Grønfur; Dziuba, Carter Jordan; Heggset, Ellinor Bævre; Syverud, Kristin; Torsæter, Ole; Gates, Ian D.; Bryant, Steven. Transportation of nanocellulose dispersions through porous media. International Symposium of the Society of Core Analysts; 2017.
  16. Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Hamid; Torsæter, Ole. Injected pore volume on lab and field scales. 9th International Conference on Porous Media & Annual Meeting; 2017.
  17. Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Hamid; Torsæter, Ole. Ions & surfactant in two phase flow. 9th International Conference on Porous Media & Annual Meeting; 2017.
  18. Hosseinzade Khanamiri, Hamid; Torsæter, Ole; Voss, Georg. Fluid topology in drainage and imbibition: Pore scale imaging by synchrotron tomography. International Symposium of the Society of Core Analysts; 2017.
  19. Jahanbani Ghahfarokhi, Ashkan; Kleppe, Jon; Torsæter, Ole. Key Concepts in the Simulation Study of a New Polymer Gel System for Enhanced Oil Recovery. 79th EAGE Conference and Exhibition; 2017.
  20. Jahanbani Ghahfarokhi, Ashkan; Kleppe, Jon; Torsæter, Ole. Numerical Simulation of a Polymer Gel System for In-Depth Conformance Control. 9th International Conference on Porous Media & Annual Meeting (Interpore); 2017.
  21. Jahanbani Ghahfarokhi, Ashkan; Kleppe, Jon; Torsæter, Ole. A Comprehensive Simulation Study of Application of Polymer Gels for Enhancing Oil Recovery. Colloids and Complex fluids for Energies – C2E IFPEN; 2017.
  22. Jahanbani Ghahfarokhi, Ashkan; Kleppe, Jon; Torsæter, Ole. Numerical Simulation of pH-Sensitive Polymer Gel for In-Depth Conformance Contro Asia Petroleum and Geoscience Conference & Exhibition 2017; 2017.