Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media.
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
; 87(2): 023015, 2013 Feb.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23496618
ABSTRACT
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(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(2) sequestration in deep saline aquifers.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Reologia
/
Soluções
/
Modelos Químicos
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
Assunto da revista:
BIOFISICA
/
FISIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2013
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos