Reservoir Engineering
Oil Trapping Mechanism @ Laboratory-Scale
Would it remain feasible to replicate the following scenario at the laboratory-scale?
Oil (non-wetting fluid) getting displaced by water (wetting fluid), which moves at a constant but infinitesimal flow rate.
During this process @ laboratory-scale, how would we ensure that the viscous forces remain to be completely dominated by the capillary forces acting at the oil-water interfaces?
Feasible to capture the role of capillary forces in such cases, which makes the water spontaneously displacing the oil?
Also, how exactly to ensure the flow rate to remain to be infinitesimal, during such displacement of oil?
Feasible to capture the presence of negative pressure gradient across the system in such cases?
Feasible to capture the formation of residual oil @ laboratory-scale, where, finite clusters from a connected cluster of oil gets disconnected, upon reaching the exit, as the water keep advancing?
Since, oil remains to be slightly compressible, whether, water can still invade trapped regions of oil?
How does the above displacement process @ constant flow rate (having a unique time sequence of advances of the interface and eventually having a unique way of deciding, whether or not a given portion of the displaced fluid becomes trapped) remains to differ from that of undergoing @ constant applied pressure (the interface advancing in many places, and eventually different time orderings leading to different trapping configurations)?
Also, how do we distinguish between advancing the interface at the point of least resistance from that of advancing all interfaces up to some chosen threshold resistance @ laboratory-scale?
So, what exactly dictates the advance of the interface? Is it determined by the sizes of the pores? Or Is it determined by the sizes of the connecting throats? Or A combination of both?