Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
A comparative analysis of automated contact angle measurement methods for X-ray microtomographic images of two-phase flow in porous media
Submission Author:
Christoph Zevenbergen , SC
Co-Authors:
Christoph Zevenbergen, Ricardo Bazarin, Diogo Nardelli Siebert, Luís Orlando Emerich dos Santos
Presenter: Christoph Zevenbergen
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1723
Abstract
Although an essential parameter for understanding the multicomponent immiscible fluid flow in oil recovery processes, realistic measurements of the wettability in reservoir rock samples is a difficult challenge due to the complexity and heterogeneity of these porous media. With the advances in X-ray microtomography, the interactions of wetting and no-wetting fluids with the solid matrix of the porous samples can now be observed in the pore scale, enabling in situ measurement of the contact angle even in reservoir conditions. In recent years, the measurement of contact angles through three-dimensional microtomographic images has advanced from manual measurement methods to automated methods incorporating interface tracking and image data processing. Moreover, accurately estimating contact angles at low-resolution points remains a challenge even for the most advanced techniques. In this context, the present work compares these different methods. All methods analyzed here use the level set method for tracking the fluid-fluid and fluid-solid surfaces by applying a sign level function. Actual computation of the contact angles at the triple line is performed by the scalar product of the normal vectors to the solid-fluid and fluid-fluid interfaces. We employed a static spherical oil droplet over an inclined plane solid surface as a benchmark problem. For each model, different droplet resolutions, radii, and interface configurations (singular and diffuse) were considered. The cases of diffuse interfaces are based on the results of numerical simulationsusing the lattice Boltzmann numerical method. Finally, the interface tracking techniques are compared and classified regarding their implementation characteristics, computational costs, and accuracy.
Keywords
contact angle, Automated measurement, Microtomography, Wettability
