Formation and ultrasonic removal of fouling particle structures in a natural porous material

Formation and ultrasonic removal of fouling particle structures in a porous material (caused by the flow of a liquid with small through the material) was studied with natural sandstone. Fouling particles were generated inside the sandstone by changing the composition of the liquid from a 2% KCl brine solution to fresh water. The influence of liquid velocity, particle concentration and ratio of particle diameter to pore diameter on the permeability decrease due to the fouling particles is as anticipated from the formation of particle bridges inside the sandstone. The removal of fouling particles by high frequency acoustic waves also was investigated. The influence of fluid velocity, material permeability and acoustic power input on the cleaning efficiency indicates again that fouling is caused by particle bridges inside the sandstone. The understanding of the formation and ultrasonic removal of fouling particle structures in a porous material is of importance for the design of ultrasonic tools for cleaning the near wellbore region of oil reservoirs.

[1]  L. M. McDowell-Boyer,et al.  Particle transport through porous media , 1986 .

[2]  Rolf K. Bratli,et al.  Stability and Failure of Sand Arches , 1981 .

[3]  Kartic C. Khilar,et al.  Migrations of Fines in Porous Media , 1998 .

[4]  Mukul M. Sharma,et al.  Ultrasonic Removal of Near-Wellbore Damage Caused by Fines and Mud Solids , 1995 .

[5]  M. Biot.  Theory of Propagation of Elastic Waves in a Fluid‐Saturated Porous Solid. I. Low‐Frequency Range , 1956 .

[6]  P. Poesio,et al.  Theoretical and experimental investigation of acoustic streaming in a porous material. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[7]  J. Israelachvili.  Intermolecular and surface forces , 1985 .

[8]  H. S. Fogler,et al.  Colloidally induced smectitic fines migration: Existence of microquakes , 1997 .

[9]  David M. J. Smeulders,et al.  Removal of Small Particles from a Porous Material by Ultrasonic Irradiation , 2004 .

[10]  Igor A. Beresnev,et al.  Elastic-wave stimulation of oil production; a review of methods and results , 1994 .

[11]  Kartic C. Khilar,et al.  WATER SENSITIVITY OF SANDSTONES. , 1983 .

[12]  H. S. Fogler,et al.  Network model for straining dominated particle entrapment in porous media , 1987 .

[13]  H. B. Carroll,et al.  Particle Transport In Sandstones , 1977 .

[14]  Act Annemarie Aarts,et al.  Net flow of compressible viscous liquids induced by travelling waves in porous media , 1998 .

[15]  P. Poesio,et al.  An investigation of the influence of acoustic waves on the liquid flow through a porous material. , 2002, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[16]  H. S. Fogler,et al.  Plugging by hydrodynamic bridging during flow of stable colloidal particles within cylindrical pores , 1999, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.