Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media
Author(s)
Zhao, Benzhong; MacMinn, Christopher W.; Szulczewski, Michael Lawrence; Neufeld, Jerome A.; Huppert, Herbert E.; Juanes, Ruben; ... Show more Show less
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We study the gravity-exchange flow of two immiscible fluids in a porous medium and show that, in contrast with the miscible case, a portion of the initial interface remains pinned at all times. We elucidate, by means of micromodel experiments, the pore-level mechanism responsible for capillary pinning at the macroscale. We propose a sharp-interface gravity-current model that incorporates capillarity and quantitatively explains the experimental observations, including the x∼t[superscript 1/2] spreading behavior at intermediate times and the fact that capillarity stops a finite-release current. Our theory and experiments suggest that capillary pinning is potentially an important, yet unexplored, trapping mechanism during CO[subscript 2] sequestration in deep saline aquifers.
Date issued
2013-02Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of EngineeringJournal
Physical Review E
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Zhao, Benzhong et al. “Interface Pinning of Immiscible Gravity-exchange Flows in Porous Media.” Physical Review E 87.2 (2013). ©2013 American Physical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1539-3755
1550-2376