Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.02.010
Title (Primary) Capillary trapping mechanism in strongly water wet systems: Comparison between experiment and percolation theory
Author Geistlinger, H.; Mohammadian, S.
Source Titel Advances in Water Resources
Year 2015
Department BOPHY
Volume 79
Page From 35
Page To 50
Language englisch
Supplements https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0309170815000366-mmc1.docx
Keywords Capillary trapping; Thin-film flow, Snap-off events, Trapped gas cluster; X-ray micro computer tomography; Monte-Carlo experiment; Percolation theory; Imbibition process
UFZ wide themes RU1
Abstract To understand capillary trapping mechanism, we conduct a real Monte-Carlo experiment by using packed glass beads with nearly the same pore size distribution, but different stochastic realizations. We study gas phase trapping during imbibition for capillary numbers from 2×10-7 to 10-6 using X-ray micro tomography and compare the experimental results with predictions from percolation theory. We found excellent agreement. Percolation theory explains (i) that the capillary desaturation curves are not dependent on flow rate, (ii) the linear dependence of the total gas surface on gas saturation that is a direct consequence of the linear relationship between cluster surface area and cluster volume, which is a prediction from percolation theory for large finite clusters, (iii) the power-like cluster size distribution with an exponent τexp = 2.15 that only deviates by 2% from the theoretical one (τtheor = 2.19), and (iv) that the maximal z-extension of trapped large gas cluster is described by the cut-off correlation length ξB (B – bond number).
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=15613
Geistlinger, H., Mohammadian, S. (2015):
Capillary trapping mechanism in strongly water wet systems: Comparison between experiment and percolation theory
Adv. Water Resour. 79 , 35 - 50 10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.02.010