Trapping and Mobilization of Residual Fluid During Capillary Desaturation in Porous Media

1999/02/17 by A. Lucian, Lucian, A., R. Hilfer +1
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques #FOS: Physical sciences #Groundwater flow and contamination studies #Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9902236

13 pages

arxiv created 1999/02/17 · openalex publication_date 1999/02/17 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We discuss the problem of trapping and mobilization of nonwetting fluids during immiscible two phase displacement processes in porous media. Capillary desaturation curves give residual saturations as a function of capillary number. Interpreting capillary numbers as the ratio of viscous to capillary forces the breakpoint in experimental curves contradicts the theoretically predicted force balance. We show that replotting the data against a novel macroscopic capillary number resolves the problem for discontinuous mode displacement.

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