Capillary Pressure at a Saturation Front During Restricted Counter-Current Spontaneous Imbibition with Liquid Displacing Air

The ultimate driving force for counter-current spontaneous imbibition of a fluid into a porous material is the capillary pressure developed under dynamic conditions at the imbibition front. This is a difficult variable to measure. We report experiments using restricted counter-current spontaneous imbibition to find the maximum capillary pressure developed during imbibition of a light mineral oil (and brine) into initially air-filled sandstone core samples with one end-face open. The production of air from the core was prevented by covering its open face with a low permeability core segment set against the main test segment. The location of the imbibition front and the pressure resulting from compression of air ahead of the imbibition front were monitored. In some cases, in order to achieve stabilized gas pressures with the front still advancing through the core, the air in the core was compressed at the start of the imbibition test. The subsequently measured stabilized air pressures dropped only slightly as imbibition slowed. The measured pressures are directly related to the effective capillary pressures that drive spontaneous imbibition. After spontaneous imbibition ceased, the pressure was released by flow of air through the sealed end of the core and further spontaneous imbibition occurred in co-current mode. Comparison of the stabilized pressures with previously published oil/brine imbibition results showed close agreement after compensation for the difference in interfacial tension. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.