Experimental study on flow and rheological behavior of oil-in-water emulsions in unconsolidated porous media: Effect of particle size and phase volume fractions

Abstract

Flow of oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions through porous media was studied experimentally. Details of the theoretical developments of effective viscosity of emulsions flowing through unconsolidated porous media were presented. The emulsion rheological data were coupled with the hydraulic radius concept and the Navier-Stokes (NS) equation to account for the pressure gradient dependence of effective viscosity of emulsions in porous media. Thereafter, the emulsion flow through different type of porous media (packed bed with different size of particle diameter) was studied. The rheological behavior of o/w emulsions in porous bed with oil volume fraction ranging from 10 to 80 % (v/v) was investigated. Emulsions behaved like non-Newtonian shear thinning (n<1) fluids. The effect of emulsion volume fraction, flow rate and number of pore volume (PV) injected on bed pressure drop and flow resistance of different types of porous media were studied and discussed. The observed blocking/resistance mechanisms could be attributed in part to the pressure drop-flow rate response of behavior of emulsion flow in porous media. These showed the potential use of emulsions as conformance agents.