Pore scale simulation of phase trapping in artificial porous media prototypes

In late times within reservoir life, it is more important to determine how to extract oil droplets that remain in porous media traps. From a microscopic point of view, viscous forces confront capillary forces when trying to push oil droplets through throats that exist in microchannels. It is known that factors like initial oil saturation, trap to throat ratio, interfacial tension as well as injectant flow rate calculate residual oil saturation in porous media. This work simulates oil trapping in pore scale micro channels via using artificial porous media prototypes. To do this, an in-house program was developed to create various types of media realizations which express different average trap to throat ratios, path tortuosities as well as specific surface area. Thereafter, the program computes residual phase saturations with respect to microscale forces for several different operational conditions. Results illustrate that internal media structure significantly impacts phase entrapment in porous materials. Results also display that for designing the CO2 storage or oil extraction process, engineers must carefully consider porous media characteristics rather than operational factors.