Abnormal Phenomena and Mathematical Model of Fluid Imbibition in a Capillary Tube

Wenquan Deng, Tianbo Liang, Shuai Yuan, Fujian Zhou and Junjian Li
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Wenquan Deng: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, Beijing 102249, China
Tianbo Liang: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, Beijing 102249, China
Shuai Yuan: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, Beijing 102249, China
Fujian Zhou: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, Beijing 102249, China
Junjian Li: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum at Beijing, Beijing 102249, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-15

Abstract: At present, the imbibition behavior in tight rocks has been attracted increasing attention since spontaneous imbibition plays an important role in unconventional oil and gas development, such as increasing swept area and enhancing recovery rate. However, it is difficult to describe the imbibition behavior through imbibition experiment using tight rock core. To characterize the imbibition behavior, imbibition and drainage experiments were conducted among water, oil, and gas phases in a visible circular capillary tube. The whole imbibition process is monitored using a microfluidic platform equipped with a high frame rate camera. This study conducts two main imbibition experiments, namely liquid-displacing-air and water-displacing-oil experiments. The latter is a spontaneous imbibition that the lower-viscosity liquid displaces the higher-viscosity liquid. For the latter, the tendency of imbibition rate with time does not match with previous model. The experimental results indicate that it is unreasonable to take no account of the effect of accumulated liquid flowing out of the capillary tube on imbibition, especially in the imbibition experiments where the lower-viscosity liquid displaces the higher-viscosity liquid. A mathematical model is established by introducing an additional force to describe the imbibition behavior in capillary tube, and the model shows a good prediction effect on the tendency of imbibition rate with time. This study discovers and analyzes the effect of additional force on imbibition, and the analysis has significances to understand the imbibition behavior in tight rocks.

Keywords: spontaneous imbibition; hydraulic fracturing; microfluidics; tight rock (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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