Effect of Contact Angle on Capillary Pressure and Liquid Recovery from Angular Pore Channels

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the contact angle influences capillary pressure and liquid recovery in angular pore channels, introducing a master curve for recovery factor based on scaled contact angles supported by simulations and theoretical calculations.

Contribution

It presents a new scaling approach for predicting liquid recovery in angular channels, combining numerical simulations and theoretical analysis.

Findings

Recovery factor depends strongly on contact angle.

Scaling contact angle by a critical value yields a master curve.

Theoretical and simulation results agree on capillary entry pressures.

Abstract

We predict the volume of liquid recovered from different-shaped prismatic channels following gas displacement. This recovery factor depends strongly on the contact angle at which the gas-liquid interfaces meet the walls of the channel. We show that scaling the contact angle by a critical value, dependent on the channel shape, leads to a master curve for the recovery factor.} Our numerical simulations with the Surface Evolver are supported by theoretical calculations for the capillary entry pressure in a channel with a triangular or rectangular cross-section and for the interface shape in a "scalloped" triangular channel formed between three parallel cylinders.