• Open Access

Pore-scale micro-computed-tomography imaging: Nonwetting-phase cluster-size distribution during drainage and imbibition

A. Georgiadis, S. Berg, A. Makurat, G. Maitland, and H. Ott
Phys. Rev. E 88, 033002 – Published 4 September 2013

Abstract

We investigated the cluster-size distribution of the residual nonwetting phase in a sintered glass-bead porous medium at two-phase flow conditions, by means of micro-computed-tomography (μCT) imaging with pore-scale resolution. Cluster-size distribution functions and cluster volumes were obtained by image analysis for a range of injected pore volumes under both imbibition and drainage conditions; the field of view was larger than the porosity-based representative elementary volume (REV). We did not attempt to make a definition for a two-phase REV but used the nonwetting-phase cluster-size distribution as an indicator. Most of the nonwetting-phase total volume was found to be contained in clusters that were one to two orders of magnitude larger than the porosity-based REV. The largest observed clusters in fact ranged in volume from 65% to 99% of the entire nonwetting phase in the field of view. As a consequence, the largest clusters observed were statistically not represented and were found to be smaller than the estimated maximum cluster length. The results indicate that the two-phase REV is larger than the field of view attainable by μCT scanning, at a resolution which allows for the accurate determination of cluster connectivity.

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  • Received 21 March 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.88.033002

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. Georgiadis1,2, S. Berg1, A. Makurat1, G. Maitland2, and H. Ott1,3,*

  • 1Shell Global Solutions International BV, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
  • 2Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
  • 3Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London, United Kingdom

  • *holger.ott@shell.com; h.ott@imperial.ac.uk

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Vol. 88, Iss. 3 — September 2013

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