Time scales of relaxation dynamics during transient conditions in two-phase flow

Schlüter, Steffen; Berg, Steffen; Li, Tianyi; Vogel, Hans-Jörg; Wildenschild, Dorthe

doi:10.1002/2016WR019815

Time scales of relaxation dynamics during transient conditions in two-phase flow

Journal Article · Wed May 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Water Resources Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019815· OSTI ID:1372226

^[1]; ^[2]; Li, Tianyi ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[3]

Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Halle (Germany)
Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Rijswijk (Netherlands)
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Halle (Germany); Martin-Luther-Univer. Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)

The relaxation dynamics toward a hydrostatic equilibrium after a change in phase saturation in porous media is governed by fluid reconfiguration at the pore scale. Little is known whether a hydrostatic equilibrium in which all interfaces come to rest is ever reached and which microscopic processes govern the time scales of relaxation. Here we apply fast synchrotron-based X-ray tomography (X-ray CT) to measure the slow relaxation dynamics of fluid interfaces in a glass bead pack after fast drainage of the sample. We report the relaxation of interfaces triggers internal redistribution of fluids, reduces the surface energy stored in the fluid interfaces, and relaxes the contact angle toward the equilibrium value while the fluid topology remains unchanged. The equilibration of capillary pressures occurs in two stages: (i) a quick relaxation within seconds in which most of the pressure drop that built up during drainage is dissipated, a process that is to fast to be captured with fast X-ray CT, and (ii) a slow relaxation with characteristic time scales of 1–4 h which manifests itself as a spontaneous imbibition process that is well described by the Washburn equation for capillary rise in porous media. The slow relaxation implies that a hydrostatic equilibrium is hardly ever attained in practice when conducting two-phase experiments in which a flux boundary condition is changed from flow to no-flow. Implications for experiments with pressure boundary conditions are discussed.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357; FG02-94ER14466

OSTI ID:: 1372226

Journal Information:: Water Resources Research, Journal Name: Water Resources Research Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 53; ISSN 0043-1397

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: ENGLISH

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Time scales of relaxation dynamics during transient conditions in two-phase flow

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