Abstract
The moving oil-water interface in a pure silica capillary tube of about 10 microns diameter was photographed through a microscope. The pictures show that the contact angle for water displacing kerosene did not change with changes in velocity, but when kerosene surfactant solutions were used to change the wetting and interfacial tension, the contact angle increased with velocity. A synthetic core saturated with kerosene or kerosene surfactant solutions in the presence of minimum interstitial water and in adsorption equilibrium with the respective surfactant solution was water flooded at various rates. Changes in flood rate caused changes in the residual oil saturation, having opposite effects on the residual saturations for kerosene and kerosene surfactant solutions. A correlation of residual oil saturation with dynamic contact angle shows that the dynamic angle does not fully explain the differences in residual oil saturation for different injection rates; however, when interfacial tension is also considered, this work shows what wetting characteristics determine the effect which interfacial tension and injection rate will have on residual oil saturation. In water wet systems, high interfacial tension and high injection rate favor low residual oil saturation, but low interfacial tension and low injection rates favor low residual saturation in oil wet systems.
Ferrell, Howard Hulen (1961). Dynamic capillary phenomena in oil recovery by water flooding. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -171575.