Gas Bubble Migration and Trapping in Porous Media: Pore‐Scale Simulation

Gas bubbles can be naturally generated or intentionally introduced in sediments. Gas bubble migration and trapping affect the rate of gas emission into the atmosphere or modify the sediment properties such as hydraulic and mechanical properties. In this study, the migration and trapping of gas bubbl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Solid earth 2018-02, Vol.123 (2), p.1060-1071
Main Authors: Mahabadi, Nariman, Zheng, Xianglei, Yun, Tae Sup, Paassen, Leon, Jang, Jaewon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bubbles
Coalescence
Coalescing
Computer simulation
gas bubble
Geophysics
Hydraulic conductivity
Hydraulics
Mechanical properties
Migration
nucleation
pore‐network model
Porous media
Reduction
Residual gas
Saturation
Sediment
Sediments
Simulation
Size distribution
Soil properties
Spatial distribution
Three dimensional models
Trapping
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Summary:Gas bubbles can be naturally generated or intentionally introduced in sediments. Gas bubble migration and trapping affect the rate of gas emission into the atmosphere or modify the sediment properties such as hydraulic and mechanical properties. In this study, the migration and trapping of gas bubbles are simulated using the pore‐network model extracted from the 3D X‐ray image of in situ sediment. Two types of bubble size distribution (mono‐sized and distributed‐sized cases) are used in the simulation. The spatial and statistical bubble size distribution, residual gas saturation, and hydraulic conductivity reduction due to the bubble trapping are investigated. The results show that the bubble size distribution becomes wider during the gas bubble migration due to bubble coalescence for both mono‐sized and distributed‐sized cases. And the trapped bubble fraction and the residual gas saturation increase as the bubble size increases. The hydraulic conductivity is reduced as a result of the gas bubble trapping. The reduction in hydraulic conductivity is apparently observed as bubble size and the number of nucleation points increase. Key Points Gas bubble migration in porous media relevant to in situ condition is simulated by the pore‐network model The bubble size distribution becomes wider and the total number of gas bubbles decreases during the migration and trapping in pore space Hydraulic conductivity is reduced due to the trapping gas bubbles even at very low gas saturation
ISSN:2169-9313
2169-9356
DOI:10.1002/2017JB015331