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Influence of wettability on flow characteristics of water through microtubes and cores

  • Articles/Energy Science & Technology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

The flow characteristics of deionized water in hydrophilic and hydrophobic microtubes with diameters of 14.9, 5.03 and 2.05 μm are investigated experimentally. The results indicate that the flow characteristics of deionized water in microtubes with diameter of 14.9 μm are in agreement with the classical Hagen-Poiseuille (H-P) equation, but for hydrophilic and hydrophobic microtubes with smaller diameters, the results show significant departure from the prediction of conventional theory, and the discrepancies are influenced by wettability of the microtubes and increase as the Reynolds numbers decrease. Besides, flows of fluid in cores are the macroscopic reflection of flows in countless micron-sized pore throats, the influence of wettability on microscale flow in pore throats will cause the change of seepage characteristic in cores. Therefore, flow experiments of brine through cores with different wettabilities are conducted. The results demonstrate that wettability exerts similar influence on water flows in cores and microtubes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, Enhanced Oil Recovery Research Center, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China

    Fei Wang, XiangAn Yue, LiJuan Zhang, RenBao Zhao & JiRui Hou

  2. China Sonangol International Limited, Shanghai, 200060, China

    ShaoLiang Xu

Authors
  1. Fei Wang
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  2. XiangAn Yue
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  3. ShaoLiang Xu
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  4. LiJuan Zhang
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  5. RenBao Zhao
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  6. JiRui Hou
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fei Wang or XiangAn Yue.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50574060) and National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2005CB221303)

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Wang, F., Yue, X., Xu, S. et al. Influence of wettability on flow characteristics of water through microtubes and cores. Chin. Sci. Bull. 54, 2256–2262 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0167-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0167-6

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