Study of foam in model fractures: coarsening, gas trapping and gravity effects

Naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs) gain much attention worldwide because they are often encountered in aquifer remediation, CO2 sequestration, and hydrocarbon extraction. In hydrocarbon extraction, however, oil recovery by gas injection in NFRs is usually low, because of poor sweep efficiency. During gas injection, the displacement front is...

Coarsening of foam in two model fractures with different roughness

Foam coarsening by diffusion (Ostwald ripening) has been well studied in bulk foams. However, it is less well understood in porous media. In particular, the mechanisms that may slow or stop coarsening have not been fully investigated. In this paper, we report an experimental study of foam coarsening in two 1-m-long and 15-cm-wide model fractures...