ADVANCES IN STUDIES OF SPONTANEOUS IMBIBITION IN POROUS MEDIA

Abstract

Spontaneous imbibition is a natural phenomenon in porous media extensively occurring in many fields of engineering applications and natural sciences. Thus, the issues on the basic statistics and kinetics of spontaneous imbibition in porous media have become one of hot topics for many years. In this review, progresses in traditionally theoretical researches on Lucas-Washburn (LW) model, Terzaghi model, Handy model, Mattax and Kyte scaled model of dimensionless time, Aronofsky scaled model of normalized recovery and recent advances in the area especially over the last decade are reviewed, including criterion parameters for analyzing the mechanisms of spontaneous imbibition and recent studies on spontaneous imbibition in porous media based on the fractal theory. Brief reviews on numerical simulations and experiments about the influence of factors on the imbibition rate are also addressed. A few of comments are also made on the future research directions and subjects on spontaneous imbibition of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in porous media and fractured porous media with dual-porosity based on the fractal theory and numerical simulations.