Browsing by Author "Vincent-Bonnieu, Sebastien"

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    Insights on Foam Transport from a Texture-Implicit Local-Equilibrium Model with an Improved Parameter Estimation Algorithm
    (American Chemical Society, 2016) Zeng, Yongchao; Muthuswamy, Aarthi; Ma, Kun; Wang, Le; Farajzadeh, Rouhi; Puerto, Maura; Vincent-Bonnieu, Sebastien; Akbar Eftekhari, Ali; Wang, Ying; Da, Chang; Joyce, Jeffrey C.; Biswal, Sibani L.; Hirasaki, George J.
    We present an insightful discussion on the implications of foam transport inside porous media based on an improved algorithm for the estimation of model parameters. A widely used texture-implicit local-equilibrium foam model, STARS, is used to describe the reduction of gas mobility in the state of foam with respect to free gas. Both the dry-out effect and shear-dependent rheology are considered in foam simulations. We estimate the limiting capillary pressure Pc* from fmdryvalues in the STARS model to characterize foam film stability in a dynamic flowing system. We find that Pc* is a good indicator of foam strength in porous media and varies with different gas types. We also calculate Pc* for different foaming surfactants and find that foam stability is correlated with the Gibbs surface excess concentration. We compare our improved parameter estimation algorithm with others reported in literature. The robustness of the algorithm is validated for various foam systems.
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    Role of Gas Type on Foam Transport in Porous Media
    (American Chemical Society, 2016) Zeng, Yongchao; Farajzadeh, Rouhi; Eftekhari, Ali Akbar; Vincent-Bonnieu, Sebastien; Muthuswamy, Aarthi; Rossen, William R.; Hirasaki, George J.; Biswal, Sibani L.
    We present the results of an experimental investigation of the effect of gas type and composition on foam transport in porous media. Steady-state foam strengths with respect to three cases of distinct gases and two cases containing binary mixtures of these gases were compared. The effects of gas solubility, the stability of lamellae, and the gas diffusion rate across the lamellae were examined. Our experimental results showed that steady-state foam strength is inversely correlated with gas permeability across a liquid lamella, a parameter that characterizes the rate of mass transport. These results are in good agreement with existing observations that the foam strength for a mixture of gases is correlated with the less soluble component. Three hypotheses with different predictions of the underlying mechanism that explain the role of gas type and composition on foam strength are discussed in detail.