Transport of emulsions in granular porous media driven by capillary force

• Main Authors: Olga Shtyka, Łukasz Przybysz, Jerzy Sęk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Research and Innovation Centre Pro-Akademia 2018-01-01
• Series: Acta Innovations
• Subjects: emulsion; imbibition; kinetics; granular media; pore radius
• Online Access: http://www.proakademia.eu/en/acta-innovations/publications/no-2018/no-26/460.html

The transport of liquids driven by capillary suction-pressure and balanced by both viscous drag force and gravity acceleration is known as spontaneous imbibition. The prediction of spontaneous imbibition in porous media is of importance due to its relevance as a fundamental phenomenon in numerous industrial technologies as well as in nature. A vast majority of the experimental results and mathematical models concerning the imbibition process of single-phase liquids are considered and analyzed in the literature. The present research focuses on two-phase liquids transport in porous medium driven by capillary force. The penetrating liquids were surfactant- stabilized emulsions with the different dispersed phase concentrations. The discussed issues are the influence of porous bed composition and inner phase concentration on the height of an emulsion penetration, which allows to predict the velocity of imbibition process. From a practical point of view, the experimental results give the possibility to evaluate: productivity of granular sorbents applied to recover the environment, efficiency of building materials wetting with multiphase liquids, process of oil-derived pollutants migration in porous media, e.g. soil and other rock structures, etc.