Abstract
Snap-off events are one of the most common and essential phenomena in two-phase flow in porous media. This paper uses the scanning results of a siltstone slice to construct a two-dimensional heterogeneous pore network structure to visualise microscopic snap-off phenomena and displacement processes accurately. The relationship between snap-off events and the non-wetting phase saturation was studied using two-phase flow displacement experiments. Results show that although the non-wetting phase snap-off events benefit freeing the trapped non-wetting phase in the microchannels, high-frequency snap-off events are the main reason for trapping the non-wetting phase during the displacement process, eventually leading to residuals. The frequency of non-wetting phase snap-off events in the pore network structure can be reduced to lower the non-wetting phase saturation and reduce the non-wetting phase residuals by increasing the displacement fluid viscosity, reducing the surface tension coefficient between the phases and increasing the flow rate.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (Program No. 2023-YBSF-218, 2021GXLH-Z-071) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12072256).
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RL and ZL: were involved in the experiments and wrote the main manuscript text. ZG and WL: contributed to the writing—reviewing and editing. GZ: helped with the writing—review and editing, and supervision. JS: contributed to the conceptualisation, methodology, writing-reviewing and editing, and supervision. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Li, R., Gu, Z., Li, Z. et al. Behaviors of non-wetting phase snap-off events in two-phase flow: microscopic phenomena and macroscopic effects. Microfluid Nanofluid 28, 24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-024-02718-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-024-02718-y