Micro-PIV Study of Supercritical CO$_{2}$-Water Interactions in Porous Micromodels

Multiphase flow of immiscible fluids in porous media is encountered in numerous natural systems and engineering applications such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and CO$_{2}$ sequestration among others. Geological sequestration of CO$_{2}$ in saline aquifers has emerged as a viable option for reducing CO$_{2}$ emissions, and thus it has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years. A key objective is improving the accuracy of numerical models used for field-scale simulations by incorporation/better representation of the pore-scale flow physics. This necessitates experimental data for developing, testing and validating such models. We have studied drainage and imbibition processes in a homogeneous, two-dimensional porous micromodel with CO$_{2}$ and water at reservoir-relevant conditions. Microscopic particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) technique was applied to obtain spatially- and temporally-resolved velocity vector fields in the aqueous phase. The results provide new insight into the flow processes at the pore scale.