English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Immiscible fluid-fluid displacement in porous media is of great importance inmany engineering applications, such as enhanced oil recovery, agriculturalirrigation, and geologic CO2 storage. Fingering phenomena, induced by theinterface instability, are commonly encountered during displacement processesand somehow detrimental since such hydrodynamic instabilities can significantlyreduce displacement efficiency. In this study, we report a possible adjustmentin pore geometry which aims to suppress the capillary fingering in porous mediawith hierarchical structures. Through pore-scale simulations and theoreticalanalysis, we demonstrate and quantify combined effects of wettability andhierarchical geometry on displacement patterns, showing a transition fromfingering to compact mode. Our results suggest that with a higher porosity ofthe 2nd-order porous structure, the displacement can keep compact across awider range of wettability conditions. Combined with our previous work onviscous fingering in such media, we can provide a complete insight into thefluid-fluid displacement control in hierarchical porous media, across a widerange of flow conditions from capillary- to viscous-dominated modes. Theconclusions of this work can benefit the design of microfluidic devices, aswell as tailoring porous media for better fluid displacement efficiency at thefield scale.

Tuning capillary flow in porous media with hierarchical structures