Synchrotron 4-dimensional imaging of two-phase flow through porous media
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Synchrotron 4-dimensional imaging of two-phase flow through porous media F.H. Kim1, D. Penumadu2, P. Patel2, X. Xiao3, E.J. Garboczi4, S.P. Moylan1, and M.A. Donmez1 1
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 3 Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 4 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 2
ABSTRACT Near real-time visualization of complex two-phase flow in a porous medium was demonstrated with dynamic 4-dimensional (4D) (3D + time) imaging at the 2-BM beam line of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. Advancing fluid fronts through tortuous flow paths and their interactions with sand grains were clearly captured, and formations of air bubbles and capillary bridges were visualized. The intense X-ray photon flux of the synchrotron facility made 4D imaging possible, capturing the dynamic evolution of both solid and fluid phases. Computed Tomography (CT) scans were collected every 12 s with a pixel size of 3.25 μm. The experiment was carried out to improve understanding of the physics associated with two-phase flow. The results provide a source of validation data for numerical simulation codes such as Lattice-Boltzmann, which are used to model multi-phase flow through porous media. INTRODUCTION Geometrical characterization of porous media provides crucial information for predictions of fluid flow/transport as well as structural/mechanical properties. The geometry influences not only a single fluid phase transport property such as permeability, but also multiphase flow properties. Multi-phase flow is of great interest for applications such as enhanced oil recovery. X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) allows non-destructive characterization of geometrical properties in 3D. Predictions of single and multi-phase flow parameters have been carried out based on geometrical information obtained from XCT1. Multi-phase flow through porous media, however, is a complex and dynamic problem with a lack of experimental data to validate modeling results. Some previous approaches included the use of neutron imaging to take advantage of high neutron contrast to water2, 3. The information is often limited to twodimensions for dynamic radiography, and the dynamic information is lost in 3D CT scans due to long acquisition time. A similar limitation exists with a typical medical or laboratory XCT system4. A high-resolution CT scan can now be acquired within a few seconds or less allowing multiple CT scans to capture dynamic events, due to high flux of a synchrotron source, high camera speed, and application of a fast phase retrieval algorithm5, 6. A similar development was also made with a laboratory system recently7. In this paper, the authors successfully performed a 4D imaging of two-phase flow through porous media at a synchrotron imaging beam line, and interesting preliminary results are presented.
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