Pore-Level Bénard–Marangoni Convection in Microgravity

P. Mohammadmoradi [1], A. Kantzas [1],
[1] University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Published in 2016

Pore-level displacement of heavy-oil during thermal operations such as SAGD and CSS is a complex multi-scale phenomenon. As gravity drainage is the main depletion mechanism within the intergranular pore space, the surface tension-related phenomena are dominant in intra-granular micro-pores. Here, a multidisciplinary study is conducted to investigate the effect of temperature on pore-level capillary dominant displacements. In particular, the COMSOL Multiphysics® software platform is used to study the effect of thermocapillary convection on the amount of residual oil saturation in an oil-wet single pore geometry.