Optic Imaging of Two-Phase-Flow Behavior in 1D Nanoscale Channels

Authors
Qihua Wu (Missouri University of Science and Technology) | Baojun Bai (Missouri University of Science and Technology) | Yinfa Ma (Missouri University of Science and Technology) | Jeong Tae Ok (Colorado School of Mines) | Xiaolong Yin (Colorado School of Mines) | Keith Neeves (Colorado School of Mines)
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/164549-PA
Document ID
SPE-164549-PA
Publisher
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Source
SPE Journal
Volume
19
Issue
05
Publication Date
October 2014
Document Type
Journal Paper
Pages
793 - 802
Language
English
ISSN
1086-055X
Copyright
2014.Society of Petroleum Engineers
Disciplines
6.3.1 Flow in Porous Media, 6.3 Fluid Dynamics, 6.9 Unconventional Hydrocarbon Recovery, 6 Reservoir Description and Dynamics, 6.9.2 Shale Gas, 6.9.3 Tight Gas
Keywords
Nanopores, Visualization, Mutiple- phase flow, Shale Gas
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Summary

Gas in tight sand and shale exists in underground reservoirs with microdarcy (µd) or even nanodarcy (nd) permeability ranges; these reservoirs are characterized by small pore throats and crack-like interconnections between pores. The size of the pore throats in shale may differ from the size of the saturating-fluid molecules by only slightly more than one order of magnitude. The physics of fluid flow in these rocks, with measured permeability in the nanodarcy range, is poorly understood. Knowing the fluid-flow behavior in the nanorange channels is of major importance for stimulation design, gas-production optimization, and calculations of the relative permeability of gas in tight shale-gas systems. In this work, a laboratory-on-chip approach for direct visualization of the fluid-flow behavior in nanochannels was developed with an advanced epi-fluorescence microscopy method combined with a nanofluidic chip. Displacements of two-phase flow in 100-nm-depth slit-like channels were reported. Specifically, the two-phase gas-slip effect was investigated. Under experimental conditions, the gas-slippage factor increased as the water saturation increased. The two-phase flow mechanism in 1D nanoscale slit-like channels was proposed and proved by the flow-pattern images. The results are crucial for permeability measurement and understanding fluid-flow behavior for unconventional shale-gas systems with nanoscale pores.

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