Experimental study of gas-liquid two-phase flow in glass micromodels

To estimate the most important flow variables in reservoir engineering, such as the relative permeability, it is required to know with high precision, other variables such as saturation, pressure drop of each phase, and porous media data such as porosity and absolute permeability. In this study, experimental tests were performed inside a glass micromodel using gas-liquid two-phase flow in steady-state conditions. The liquid-phase flow and the pressure drop of the porous media were determined. Additionally, the flow development inside the porous media was visualized using a high-speed video camera system. These pictures were recorded at 500 fps, and they were used to compute the phase saturation and the gas velocity in the glass micromodel. The visualization was performed in three regions of the glass micromodel demonstrating that saturation gradients were not present. The effect of the capillary number was studied over the gas-liquid relative permeability curves and on the flow mechanisms. It was concluded that high flow rates minimize edge effects, that the capillary number modifies the relative permeability values and the flow patterns inside the micromodel, and that the high-speed visualization is an efficient and accurate technique to determine saturation values and to study the flow patterns in transparent porous media such as glass micromodels.