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Direct Observation of Trapped Gas Bubbles by Capillarity in Sandy Porous Media

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Abstract

We investigated the mechanism of residual gas trapping at a microscopic level. We imaged trapped air bubbles in a Berea sandstone chip after spontaneous imbibition at atmospheric pressure. The pore structure and trapped bubbles were observed by microfocused X-ray computed tomography. Distributions of trapped bubbles in Berea and Tako sandstone were imaged in coreflooding at a capillary number of 1.0 × 10−6. Trapped bubbles are of two types, those occupying the center of the pore with a pore-scale size and others having a pore-network scale size. In low-porosity media such as sandstone, connected bubbles contribute greatly to trapped gas saturation. Effects of capillary number and injected water volume were investigated using a packed bed of glass beads 600μm in diameter, which had high porosity (38%). The trapped N2 bubbles are stable against the water flow rate corresponding to a capillary number of 1.0 × 10−4.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Tokushima, 2-1 Minamijyosanjima, Tokushima, 770-8506, Japan

    Tetsuya Suekane, Na Zhou, Takahiro Hosokawa & Takuya Matsumoto

  2. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, 710049, Xi’an, China

    Na Zhou

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  1. Tetsuya Suekane
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  2. Na Zhou
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  3. Takahiro Hosokawa
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  4. Takuya Matsumoto
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Correspondence to Tetsuya Suekane.

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Suekane, T., Zhou, N., Hosokawa, T. et al. Direct Observation of Trapped Gas Bubbles by Capillarity in Sandy Porous Media. Transp Porous Med 82, 111–122 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-009-9439-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-009-9439-5

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