ABSTRACT
The behaviour of multiple fluid phases within a porous medium is hard to predict. NMR measurements offer an excellent tool to probe such systems in a fast and non-invasive way. Such systems can be relevant to hydrocarbon recovery, catalysis, and CO2 and H2 geo-storage, among others. Since electrolyte solutions are always present in subsurface reservoirs, understanding their behaviour within porous media is highly important. In this study, we use NMR relaxation and diffusion methods to investigate the diffusion coefficients and strength of interactions between alumina surfaces and brines at various NaCl concentrations, focusing on the effect of salt concentration on transport and interactions within the porous structure. Furthermore, we study the spontaneous displacement of dodecane, a model hydrocarbon, from the same alumina pellets using the same brine solutions. Results show that brines of lower salinity consistently displace more dodecane in total, after soaking dodecane-saturated pellets in a brine solution for several days. This indicates that increased salt concentrations can reduce wettability towards the aqueous phase in simple metal oxide surfaces and highlights the capabilities of NMR to efficiently study such systems.
ABSTRACT
Bubble flow is characterised by numerous phase interfaces and turbulence, leading to fast magnetic resonance signal decay and artefacts in spin-warp imaging. In this paper, the SPRITE MRI pulse sequence, with its potential for very short encoding times, is demonstrated as an ideal technique for studying such dynamic systems. It has been used to acquire liquid velocity and relative intensity maps of two-phase gas-liquid dispersed bubble flow in a horizontal pipe at a liquid Reynolds number of 14,500. The fluids were air and water and a turbulence grid was used to generate a dispersed bubble flow pattern. The SPRITE technique shows promise for future research in gas-liquid flow.
