Flow-through macroscopic experiments

Macroscopic experiments such as core flooding have been used to obtain relative permeabilities, dispersion coefficients, and other variables relevant to reservoir flow. However, they cannot reveal details of how immiscible phases interact on the pore level. Instead visual experiments have been used to elucidate microscopic flow mechanisms. The latter approach is taken here with experiments using a novel flow cell and state-of-the-art video equipment. The pore level phenomena observed provide a basis for the proper modeling of two-phase flow through porous media at high capillary numbers. 

Macroscopic techniques for assessing kinetically controlled reactions have typically been burdened by relatively slow data collection rates. Typically, these data collection rates range from tens of seconds to minutes. The two main types of macroscopic experiments use either batch or flow-through methods (Amacher, 1991 Sparks et al., 1996). 

The main objective of this chapter is to include the above phenomena in a suitable transport equation to describe the flow of polymer species through porous media. It has been found that terms describing these effects may be included in generalised convection-dispersion equations which appear to give a satisfactory macroscopic description of the processes in that they reproduce the main features observed in laboratory core flood experiments. It is these single-phase transport equations which provide the basis for simulation of polymer transport through porous media in the multiphase... 

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