Development and application of NMRI for determining fluid saturation distributions in porous media /
Multiphase flow in porous media is an important subject in many fields of science and engineering, such as chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, soil mechanics, and groundwater hydrology. Fluid saturation is a fundamental measure which describes the amount of fluid phases and characterizes t...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1995.
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| Online Access: | Link to OAKTrust copy http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=742163721&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | Multiphase flow in porous media is an important subject in many fields of science and engineering, such as chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, soil mechanics, and groundwater hydrology. Fluid saturation is a fundamental measure which describes the amount of fluid phases and characterizes the storage and transport of fluids in porous media. Conventional methods can only measure bulk saturations of fluids. Such measurements normally are not sufficient to characterize behaviors of multiphase flow, especially in multiphase dynamic displacement processes and for heterogeneous samples. Fluid saturations in porous media as functions of spatial positions during displacement processes are critical for understanding the mechanisms of flow through porous media. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging provides an opportunity to observe the spatial variation of fluid phase saturations. NMR imaging is sensitive to the physical and chemical environment of the resonating nuclei, and hence it is particularly suitable for observing the properties of fluids in porous media, and can provide unprecedented information about fluid saturation distributions during displacement processes. In this work, NMR imaging techniques were developed for quantitatively determining one-dimensional porosity and saturation distributions of multiphase fluids in porous media. A reliable estimation procedure was developed for quantitatively estimating fluid phase distributions from the NMR imaging profiles. In this estimation procedure, a general relaxation model was developed in order to represent the relaxation behavior of fluids within porous media and to estimate intrinsic magnetization intensity, and thus the porosity and fluid saturation distributions. An NMR chemical shift imaging technique was developed to separate the total proton image of water and oil in porous media into water and oil images. This chemical shift imaging method was used to determine water and oil saturation distributions simultaneously in two- and three-phase dynamic displacement experiments. Taken together, these techniques provide a reliable means for accurately determining porosity distributions and saturation distributions of multiphase flow in static states and during dynamic displacement experiments. The NMR imaging techniques developed in this work have been applied successfully for estimating porosity distributions and fluid saturation distributions quantitatively in two- phase and three-phase displacement experiments. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Chemical Engineering". |
| Physical Description: | xvii, 173 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |