A STUDY OF TRANSPORT OF MICELLAR FLUIDS IN POROUS MEDIA (DISPERSION, TWO-PHASE, THREE-PHASE FLOW, RELATIVE PERMEABILITY, LOW INTERFACIAL TENSION)

Two- and three-phase relative permeabilities have been measured for a low interfacial tension brine-oil-surfactant-alcohol mixture in a Berea sandstone core. The measurements were done at steady-state with a constant nominal capillary number of 10('-2).;Continuous and slug displacements of both partitioning and non-partitioning radioactive tracers were run for each steady-state experiment. The experimental effluent tracer data from these experiments were analyzed by a capacitance model. The phase dispersivities and dispersion coefficients estimated from the capacitance analysis as a function of phase saturation and velocity are illustrated.;Both excess phases (oil and brine) flowing with the microemulsion showed significant capacitance effects, but the microemulsion did not. The absence of capacitance and higher residual saturation than those of excess phases at the same capillary number indicate that the microemulsion was probably the wetting phase in these low interfacial tension flows, even more wetting than the excess brine phase.;The relative permeability of each phase is a function only of its own saturation during three-phase flow. Based on this observation and the trend of experimental data, an exponential function is recommended to model three-phase relative permeability at high capillary number.;Residual phase saturation (capillary desaturation curve) and endpoint relative permeability have also been measured for three-phase micellar fluids as a function of capillary number in a Berea core.