Geo-mechanical aspects for breakage detachment of rock fines by Darcys flow

TL;DR

This paper develops a novel theoretical and experimental framework to understand and predict the detachment of authigenic and detrital fines in porous media due to flow-induced breakage, integrating mechanics, CFD, and colloidal transport models.

Contribution

It introduces a new pore-scale theory for fines detachment by breakage, combining elastic deformation, flow dynamics, and bond failure criteria, validated by coreflood experiments.

Findings

The model accurately predicts maximum retained fines versus flow velocity.

Laboratory results support the two-population colloidal transport mechanism.

The theory bridges pore-scale mechanics with core-scale transport behavior.

Abstract

Suspension-colloidal-nano transport in porous media encompasses the detachment of detrital fines against electrostatic attraction and authigenic fines by breakage, from the rock surface. While much is currently known about the underlying mechanisms governing detachment of detrital particles, including detachment criteria at the pore scale and its upscaling for the core scale, a critical gap exists due to absence of this knowledge for authigenic fines. Integrating 3D Timoshenkos beam theory of elastic cylinder deformation with CFD-based model for viscous flow around the attached particle and with strength failure criteria for particle-rock bond, we developed a novel theory for fines detachment by breakage at the pore scale. The breakage criterium derived includes analytical expressions for tensile and shear stress maxima along with two geometric diagrams which allow determining the breaking stress. This leads to an explicit formula for the breakage flow velocity. Its upscaling yields a mathematical model for fines detachment by breakage, expressed in the form of the maximum retained concentration of attached fines versus flow velocity -- maximum retention function (MRF) for breakage. We performed corefloods with piecewise constant increasing flow rates, measuring breakthrough concentration and pressure drop across the core. The behaviour of the measured data is consistent with two-population colloidal transport, attributed to detrital and authigenic fines migration. Indeed, the laboratory data show high match with the analytical model for two-population colloidal transport, which validates the proposed mathematical model for fines detachment by breakage.