Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2013 Feb;87(2):023015. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.023015. Epub 2013 Feb 19.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Porosity
  • Rheology / methods*
  • Solutions / chemistry*
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Solutions