Experimental and numerical study of the water-in-oil emulsions in porous media
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Abstract
In different industries and environments, water-in-oil emulsions are complicated mixtures of multiple phases. They are useful for enhanced oil recovery, petroleum refining, and oil spill remediation. The behavior and properties of water-in-oil emulsions through porous media depend on several factors, such as interfacial tension, contact angle, and oil viscosity. In this work, modeling of water-in-oil emulsions was performed using COMSOL Multiphysics and validated using experimental data. The utilized experimental method included a T-junction microfluidic device to visualize and measure how the water droplets in water-in-oil emulsions differ in size, shape, and displacement. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the impacts of interfacial tension, contact angle, oil and water channel size, and oil viscosity on the water and oil droplet sizes, distribution, and mobility in porous media. The results show the effects of water salinity, flow rates, and asphaltenes on the interfacial tension and water droplet size in water-in-oil emulsions using a T-junction microfluidic device. The size of droplets water-in-oil emulsions is influenced by the water’s salinity, the interfacial tension between water and oil, and the flow rate within each phase. The optimal water droplets were obtained by the seawater diluted two times (SW#2), and the droplet shape and breakup were influenced by the shear rate, reynolds number and weber number. The rates of flow affect the shaping and division of droplets, while the suggested modeling approach can precisely depict the behavior and structure of water-in-oil emulsions within porous media. The findings of this research provide valuable insights for optimizing the performance and efficiency of water-in-oil emulsion processes.
Document Type: Original article
Cited as: Zarin, T., Aghajanzadeh, M., Riazi, M., Ghaedi, M., Motealeh, M. Experimental and numerical study of the water-in-oil emulsions in porous media. Capillarity, 2024, 13(1): 10-23. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2024.10.02
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