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Projection–Subtraction X-ray Imaging Scheme for Studying Fast Fluid-Dynamics Processes in Porous Media

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Abstract

Imaging of fluid flow at the pore scale in permeable media requires high spatial resolution to observe the topology of fluid in the pore system, along with high temporal resolution to study dynamic processes. The two most popular imaging techniques in modern experiments are microfluidic device imaging and X-ray micro-computed tomography, both having significant limitations as applied to the micro-level. In particular, microfluidic experiments examine flow in quasi-2D system of pores instead of natural 3D geometry of permeable media, whereas X-ray computed tomography (reconstruction of a 3D object representation from a set of 2D projections collected at different rotation angles) is considerably slow when studying fast pore-scale events. In this work, we present a novel approach to examination of local fluid dynamics by combining traditional fast X-ray microtomography and radiographic analysis of successive projections. After initial tomographic imaging of the 3D pore structure, we perform projection-wise analysis comparing differences between two successive projections. As a result, we obtain flow visualization with time resolution determined by the projection time, which is orders of magnitude faster than standard microtomographic scan time. To confirm the effectiveness of this approach, we investigate the pore-scale mechanisms of unstable water migration that occurs during gas-hydrate formation in coal media. We first show that the displacement of brine by methane gas due to cryogenic suction can lead to multiple snap-off events of brine flow in pores. Second, we study a fast local drainage process accompanied by the formation of the gradually swelling gas bubble in the center of the pore. The measured maximum interfacial velocity in our experiments varies from 1.3 to 5.2 mm/s. We also simulate this outflow process accompanied by the bubble expansion and estimate the average brine flow rate during brine-methane displacement.

Article Highlights

  • The proposed imaging technique increases the temporal resolution of micro-CT by several orders (equal to exposure time)

  • New technique allowed detecting multiple snap-off events on a subsecond timescale caused by cryosuction

  • Interfacial linear velocity during fluid-gas displacement was measured; the maximum value varied from 1 to 5 mm/s

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Funding

This research was partly supported by Grant No. FWZZ-2022-0017. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at Argonne National Laboratory and is based on research supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science-Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357

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Author notes

  1. Viktor Nikitin, Mikhail Fokin and Anton Duchkov have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Novosibirsk State University, 1 St. Pirogova, Novosibirsk, Russia, 630090

    Ivan Gorenkov, Mikhail Fokin & Anton Duchkov

  2. Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL, 60439, USA

    Viktor Nikitin

  3. Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics SB RAS, 3 Ac. Koptyuga Avenue, Novosibirsk, Russia, 630090

    Mikhail Fokin & Anton Duchkov

Authors
  1. Ivan Gorenkov
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  2. Viktor Nikitin
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  4. Anton Duchkov
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection was performed by VN. Conceptualization and methodology were performed by VN, MF and AD. Material preparation and analysis were performed by IG under the revision of VN, MF and AD. The first draft of the manuscript was written by IG and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ivan Gorenkov.

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Gorenkov, I., Nikitin, V., Fokin, M. et al. Projection–Subtraction X-ray Imaging Scheme for Studying Fast Fluid-Dynamics Processes in Porous Media. Transp Porous Med 151, 625–643 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-023-02055-8

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