Abstract
In the present work, high-speed imaging experiments are performed to measure the time-evolution of two-phase oil-water flow, water-saturation, oil ganglia number and size distribution in a pseudo-3D porous medium. The corresponding pore-resolved simulations are performed using the Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method and predictions are validated using the aforementioned measurements. The experimentally-validated VOF model is used to understand the effects of water-flooding velocity and interfacial tension [i.e. Capillary number (Ca)] on the pore-scale oil recovery mechanisms. The pore-resolved VOF simulations reveal that the drainage phenomenon is dominated by Haines-jump events at low Ca values. The increase in Ca values results in the decrease in the frequency of Haines-jump events and after the transitional Ca, the drainage phenomenon is no longer governed by Haines-jump events and is governed by viscous fingering. Finally, VOF simulations are used to analyze the effect of successive step changes in the interfacial tension on the oil recovery.
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