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Pore-scale fluid dynamics resolved in pressure fluctuations at the Darcy scale
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  • Catherine Spurin,
  • Samuel Krevor,
  • Takeshi Kurotori,
  • Martin Julian Blunt,
  • Hamdi A. Tchelepi,
  • Gareth G Roberts,
  • Conor Patrick O'Malley
Catherine Spurin
Stanford University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Samuel Krevor
Imperial College London
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Takeshi Kurotori
Stanford University
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Martin Julian Blunt
Imperial College
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Hamdi A. Tchelepi
Stanford University
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Gareth G Roberts
Imperial College London
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Conor Patrick O'Malley
Imperial College London
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Abstract

Complex flow dynamics have been observed, at the pore-scale, during multiphase through porous rocks. These dynamics are not captured in large scale models exploring the migration and trapping of subsurface fluids e.g., CO2 or hydrogen. Due to limitations in imaging capabilities, these dynamics cannot be observed directly at the larger, Darcy scale. Instead, by using pressure data from pore-scale (mm-scale) and core-scale (cm-scale) experiments, we show that fluctuations in pressure measured at the core-scale reflect specific fluid displacement events taking place at the pore-scale. The spectral characteristics of the pressure data depends on the flow dynamics, size of the rock sample, and heterogeneity of pore space. While high resolution imaging of large samples would be useful in assessing flow dynamics across many of the scales of interest, such an approach is currently infeasible. We suggest an alternative, pragmatic, approach examining pressure data in the time-frequency domain using wavelet transformation.
15 May 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
19 May 2023Published in ESS Open Archive