Abstract
The motion and shape of a liquid drop through another continuous liquid
phase (conveying phase) in a vertical Hele-Shaw cell with two different
apertures were investigated experimentally. Two different liquid/liquid systems
were tested. In all cases, the continuous phase was more viscous and wetted the
bounding walls. In the capillarity-dominated region, the irregular shape of the
discontinuous phase changed with time and distance, with much lower velocity
than that of the conveying phase. In contrast to gas/liquid systems, the
velocity of these stabilized, elongated drops was 2.5 to almost 5 times higher
than that of conveying liquid. Despite the similarities between flow in
vertical and horizontal Hele-Shaw cells, the velocity of droplets in a vertical
fracture is different from that of a horizontal fracture. A new correlation is
derived from dimensionless analysis and the experimental data to predict the
elongated drop velocity as a function of the dimensionless parameters governing
the system.
Introduction
Two-phase flow in micro-fractures is fundamental to many different fields of
advanced science and technology, such as chemical process engineering,
bioengineering, medical and genetic engineering, as well as petroleum
engineering. For instance, understanding the flow of two-phase fluids in
near-parallel gaps through fractured rocks has a significant effect on design
of different recovery methods for naturally fractured reservoir.
The flow pattern of two-phase immiscible flow in a fracture depends on the
flow rates of the phases, the geometry, aperture, roughness of the fracture,
the flow properties of the phases and interfacial tension between the phases.
The flow patterns in a fracture are different from that in macro-sized
rectangular ducts or pipes because of the small aperture, which can enhance
capillary effects. The flow structure in the fracture affects the flow and
transport through the surrounding porous matrix blocks. The slug flow pattern
in a fracture, which occurs over a wide range of parameters, is frequently
encountered in oil-wet fractured reservoirs during the immiscible displacement
of viscous oil. It also occurs in natural gas reservoirs during displacement of
water during gas production.
© 2009. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
14 April 2008
- Meeting paper published:
17 June 2008
- Revised manuscript received:
21 April 2009
- Manuscript approved:
12 November 2009
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