Experimental investigation on front morphology for two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media

Abstract

In this work, we studied the influence of heterogeneities, fluid properties, and infiltration rates on front morphology during two-phase flow. In our experiments, a sand box, 40 cm × 60 cm × 1.2 cm, was packed with two different structures (either random or periodic) composed of 25% coarse material and 75% fine material. The infiltration process was characterized by the capillary number, Ca, and the viscosity ratio, M, between the fluids. The displacing and the displaced fluid had the same densities, such that gravity effects could be neglected. Similar to the pore scale, the stability of the front depends on the relation between M and Ca. However, on the scale under study, depending on the structure, zones of immobilized wetting fluid developed during drainage. The lifetime of these zones depended on the flow regime. Here we show that immobilized zones have an influence on the length of the transition zone, which could lead to a different time behavior than for that of the front width. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.