Foam flow investigation in 3D printed porous media: fingering and gravitational effects

Flow in porous media investigations have shown foam injection have a higher sweep efficiency compare to gas injection. However, fingering of highly mobile gas into the foam bank and separation of fluids (gas and surfactant) resulted by gravity segregation can influence the performance of foam injection project. To the best of our knowledge, this phenomenon has not been investigated experimentally in the literature. In this study, foam injection experiments have been performed in a model oriented in a horizontal and perpendicular orientation with respect to gravity using also different flow rates. High resolution imaging tools were utilized to record displacement process of oil by gas/surfactant/foam. The recorded images enabled us to monitor gas fingering and foam flow dynamics at pore scale. The obtained results highlighted the adverse effect of fingering of highly mobile gas into the foam bank and fluids separation by gravity segregation in the performance of foam project.