Princen HM
Paulsboro Technical Center, Strategic Research Center, Paulsboro, New Jersey, 08066
J Colloid Interface Sci. 1997 Mar 15;187(2):520-8. doi: 10.1006/jcis.1996.4736.
Motivated by an unexpected result of certain imbibition experiments, we have analyzed the effect of evaporation from a brine-filled, strongly water-wet porous solid whose lower end is brought into contact with bulk oil. The surprising finding was that, after some time, oil was imbibed into the core. This could imply that the core was in fact "mixed wet", were it not for the fact that the experiment was carried out in the open atmosphere, i.e., without exclusion of evaporation of water from the core. Using the simple model of a cylindrical capillary, we show that imbibition of oil is the natural consequence of such evaporation. We therefore recommend that experiments of this kind be carried out in a closed, vapor-saturated environment to reduce/eliminate this complication. As part of this study, we have analyzed in detail the shape and properties of "composite menisci" where oil, air, and water all meet in the later stages of the evaporation process. Such menisci are expected to be common in natural gas/crude oil/brine and other systems.
受某些渗吸实验意外结果的启发，我们分析了一种充满盐水、强亲水多孔固体的蒸发效果，该固体下端与大量油接触。令人惊讶的发现是，一段时间后，油被吸入岩心。若不是该实验是在开放大气中进行，即没有排除岩心中水的蒸发，这可能意味着岩心实际上是“混合润湿性”的。使用圆柱形毛细管的简单模型，我们表明油的渗吸是这种蒸发的自然结果。因此，我们建议此类实验应在封闭的、蒸汽饱和的环境中进行，以减少/消除这种复杂性。作为本研究的一部分，我们详细分析了“复合弯月面”的形状和特性，在蒸发过程的后期，油、空气和水在这些弯月面处交汇。预计这种弯月面在天然气/原油/盐水和其他系统中很常见。
