Spontaneous imbibition of wetting liquids in porous media is a ubiquitous natural phenomenon which has received much attention in a wide variety of fields over several decades. Many traditional and recently presented capillary-driven flow models are derived based on Hagen–Poiseuille (H–P) flow in cylindrical capillaries. However, some limitations of these models have motivated modifications by taking into account different geometrical factors. In this work, a more generalized spontaneous imbibition model is developed by considering the different sizes and shapes of pores, the tortuosity of imbibition streamlines in random porous media, and the initial wetting-phase saturation. The interrelationships of accumulated imbibition weight, imbibition rate and gas recovery and the properties of the porous media, wetting liquids, and their interactions are derived analytically. A theoretical analysis and comparison denote that the presented equations can generalize several traditional and newly developed models fr...

https://eps.utk.edu/faculty/perfect/Papers/Cai%20et%20al.%20(2014).pdf

Generalized Modeling of Spontaneous Imbibition Based on Hagen− Poiseuille Flow in Tortuous Capillaries with Variably Shaped Apertures

We measure spontaneous imbibition of aqueous (deionized water and KCl solutions of various concentrations) and oleic (kerosene and iso-octane) phases in several dry organic shale samples selected from two wells drilled in the Horn River basin. We find that the imbibition rate of aqueous phases is much higher than that of oleic phases even when plotted versus scaling dimensionless time, contrary to capillary-driven imbibition models. The observed difference is more pronounced in samples with higher clay content. The results suggest that the excess water intake is due to (1) the additional driving force provided through water adsorption by clay minerals, and (2) the enhancement of sample permeability through adsorption-induced microfractures.

Spontaneous Imbibition of Brine and Oil in Gas Shales: Effect of Water Adsorption and Resulting Microfractures

A critical review of water uptake by shales

The fate of fracturing water: A field and simulation study

Impact of rock fabric on water imbibition and salt diffusion in gas shales

An analytical model for spontaneous imbibition in fractal porous media including gravity

Permeability is an important parameter for characterizing the transport properties (e.g. heat and mass transfer) of porous media. It is one of the crucial issues that the permeability of porous media is exactly and quickly decided in many fields such as reservoir engineering, groundwater engineering and composite material modeling. Spontaneous imbibition is a fundamental and ubiquitous natural phenomenon extensively existing in a variety of processes. In this paper, the relationships between the height and weight of imbibition versus the time are derived based on Darcy's law, and a simple method for predicting effective permeability of porous media using spontaneous imbibition effect is proposed, including expressions for permeabilities of artificial and natural porous media. The validity of the proposed models is analysed and tested by experimental data.

Prediction of effective permeability in porous media based on spontaneous imbibition effect

Spontaneous imbibition of wetting liquids in porous media is of great importance in many fields. In this paper, an analytical model for characterizing spontaneous imbibition height versus time in natural porous media was derived using fractal approach. The average imbibition height in porous media is in terms of porosity, fractal dimensions, maximum pore size and viscosity, surface tension and liquid–solid interactions. The developed model is consistent with previous results and is tested against available experimental data showing fair agreements.

Lijun You

Papers

An analytical model for spontaneous imbibition in fractal porous media including gravity

Prediction of effective permeability in porous media based on spontaneous imbibition effect

A fractal approach to spontaneous imbibition height in natural porous media