Microfluidic study of the movement of oil droplets in microcapillaries
Abstract
In the process of oil recovery, residual oil exists in the form of separate droplets surrounded by the reservoir brine.
The oil droplets can be mobilized by injecting brine of a different salinity and ion composition, thereby enhance the oil recovery.
This is the so-called smart waterflooding. The mechanism of smart water flooding has not yet been well understood.
In this project, we make efforts to understand the macroscopic phenomenon by studying the movement of an individual oil droplet in a microcapillary that resembles a pore throat of reservoir rocks.
A microfluidic setup is established to generate oil droplets and subsequently transfer a droplet into a capillary with a diameter of tens of micrometers. The movement of the droplet in the microcapillary is studied with varied salinity, ion composition, pH etc.