Dynamics of capillary imbibition when surfactant, polymer, and hot water are used as aqueous phase for oil recovery

Capillary imbibition is an oil recovery mechanism in naturally fractured reservoirs if rock matrix is water wet and there is enough water in fractures in contact with matrix. It, however, may not yield an effective recovery under certain circumstances even if these conditions are maintained. Heavy matrix oil, high interfacial tension (IFT), oil-wet matrix sample, and limited contact area of matrix with water in fractures require additional effort to enhance the oil recovery by capillary imbibition. Chemicals and heat can be injected into naturally fractured reservoirs to improve the capillary imbibition recovery performance. With the involvement of low IFT fluid, heat, and polymer solution in the process, capillary imbibition dynamics may change and this entails an identification of the dynamics of the process through laboratory experiments before injection of these expensive fluids into oil reservoirs. In this study, the dynamics of capillary imbibition was studied experimentally. Static imbibition experiments were conducted on oil- and water-wet rock samples under different boundary conditions and saturated with different types of oil. The analyses were conducted using three indicators, namely the capillary imbibition rate, ultimate oil recovery, and shape of the recovery profile. Based on these indicators, the dynamics of capillary imbibition of different aqueous phases were evaluated for different oil types and matrix properties. The conditions that cause weak or strong capillary imbibition were identified.     

Adaptive image enhancement based on clustering of wavelet coefficients for infrared sea surveillance systems

Most of the techniques developed for infrared (IR) image enhancement (IE) depend heavily on the scene, environmental conditions, and the properties of the imaging system. So, with a set of predefined scenario properties, a content-based IR-IE technique can be developed for better situational awareness. This study proposes an adaptive IR-IE technique based on clustering of wavelet coefficients of an image for sea surveillance systems. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) of an image is computed and feature vectors are constructed from subband images. Clustering operation is applied to group similar feature vectors that belong to different scene components such as target or background. Depending on the feature vectors, a weight is assigned to each cluster and these weights are used to compute gain matrices which are used to multiply wavelet coefficients for the enhancement of the original image. Enhancement results are presented and a comparison of the performance of the proposed algorithm is given through subjective tests with other well known frequency and histogram based enhancement techniques. The proposed algorithm outperforms previous ones in the truthfulness, detail visibility of the target, artificiality, and total quality criteria, while providing an acceptable computational load.     

An unusual case of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis confined to brainstem

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disorder usually encountered in children or adolescents and characterized by multifocal neurological deficits of rapid onset. Typical target areas of demyelination include the corona radiata, centrum semiovale, periventricular white matter, cerebellar peduncles and brainstem. Involvement of deep gray matter nuclei is also frequent. We report a 6-year-old boy with ADEM who had only brainstem involvement. Serial magnetic resonance images representing the stage of disease and response to steroid treatment are presented.     

Comments on ‘Simplex space–time meshes in finite element simulations’

Some comments are provided on the citations offered in a recent paper (M. Behr, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2008; 57 :1421–1434) that describes space–time finite element computations of advection of ‘Gaussian hills’, including computations with mesh refinement in the time direction. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of capillary interaction and oil recovery under ultrasonic waves

Although, the effects of ultrasonic irradiation on multiphase flow through porous media have been studied in the past few decades, the physics of the acoustic interaction between fluid and rock is not yet well understood. Various mechanisms may be responsible for enhancing the flow of oil through porous media in the presence of an acoustic field. Capillary related mechanisms are peristaltic transport due to mechanical deformation of the pore walls, reduction of capillary forces due to the destruction of surface films generated across pore boundaries, coalescence of oil drops due to Bjerknes forces, oscillation and excitation of capillary trapped oil drops, forces generated by cavitating bubbles, and sonocapillary effects. Insight into the physical principles governing the mobilization of oil by ultrasonic waves is vital for developing and implementing novel techniques of oil extraction. This paper aims at identifying and analyzing the influence of high-frequency, high-intensity ultrasonic radiation on capillary imbibition. Laboratory experiments were performed using cylindrical Berea sandstone and Indiana limestone samples with all sides (quasi-co-current imbibition), and only one side (counter-current imbibition) contacting with the aqueous phase. The oil saturated cores were placed in an ultrasonic bath, and brought into contact with the aqueous phase. The recovery rate due to capillary imbibition was monitored against time. Air–water, mineral oil–brine, mineral oil–surfactant solution and mineral oil-polymer solution experiments were run each exploring a separate physical process governing acoustic stimulation. Water–air imbibition tests isolate the effect of ultrasound on wettability, capillarity and density, while oil–brine imbibition experiments help outline the ultrasonic effect on viscosity and interfacial interaction between oil, rock and aqueous phase. We find that ultrasonic irradiation enhances capillary imbibition recovery of oil for various fluid pairs, and that such process is dependent on the interfacial tension and density of the fluids. Although more evidence is needed, some runs hint that wettability was not altered substantially under ultrasound. Preliminary analysis of the imbibition recoveries also suggests that ultrasound enhances surfactant solubility and reduce surfactant adsorption onto the rock matrix. Additionally, counter-current experiments involving kerosene and brine in epoxy coated Berea sandstone showed a dramatic decline in recovery. Therefore, the effectiveness of any ultrasonic application may strongly depend on the nature of interaction type, i.e., co- or counter-current flow. A modified form of an exponential model was employed to fit the recovery curves in an attempt to quantify the factors causing the incremental recovery by ultrasonic waves for different fluid pairs and rock types.     

Microprobe analysis of low alloyed sintered steels

Homogenization of Mo, W and Cr in alloyed P/M carbon steels during sintering with a transient liquid phase has been investigated by microscopic and microanalytical means. The reaction was found to start with carburization of the VIa metal, continues with the formation of different carbides, and generation of a liquid phase between the carbide and -Fe. The steady state equilibrium remains stable until all VIa metal has been consumed. Microprobe analysis was found to yield optimum results if selected model samples, in which homogenization should not proceed too fast, are investigated.Dedicated to Professor Günther Tölg on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Influence of intensity and frequency of ultrasonic waves on capillary interaction and oil recovery from different rock types

Oil saturated cylindrical sandstone cores were placed into imbibition cells where they contacted with an aqueous phase and oil recovery performances were tested with and without ultrasonic radiation keeping all other conditions and parameters constant. Experiments were conducted for different initial water saturation, oil viscosity and wettability. The specifications of acoustic sources such as ultrasonic intensity (45–84 W/sq cm) and frequency (22 and 40 kHz) were also changed. An increase in recovery was observed with ultrasonic energy in all cases. This change was more remarkable for the oil-wet medium. The additional recovery with ultrasonic energy became lower as the oil viscosity increased. We also designed a setup to measure the ultrasonic energy penetration capacity in different media, namely air, water, and slurry (sand + water mixture). A one-meter long water or slurry filled medium was prepared and the ultrasonic intensity and frequency were monitored as a function of distance from the source. The imbibition cells were placed at certain distances from the sources and the oil recovery was recorded. Then, the imbibition recovery was related to the ultrasonic intensity, frequency, and distance from the ultrasonic source.     

Pediatric abdominal masses: diagnostic accuracy of diffusion weighted MRI

Purpose

To retrospectively identify apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of pediatric abdominal mass lesions, to determine whether measured ADC of the lesions and signal intensity on diffusion-weighted (DW) images allow discrimination between benign and malignant mass lesions.

Materials and Methods

Approval for this retrospective study was obtained from the institutional review board. Children with abdominal mass lesions, who were examined by DW magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were included in this study. DW MR images were obtained in the axial plane by using a non breath-hold single-shot spin-echo sequence on a 1.5-T MR scanner. ADCs were calculated for each lesion. ADC values were compared with Mann–Whitney U test. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine cut-off values for ADC. The results of visual assessment on b800 images and ADC map images were compared with chi-square test.

Results

Thirty-one abdominal mass lesions (16 benign, 15 malignant) in 26 patients (15 girls, 11 boys, ranging from 2 days to 17 years with 6.9 years mean) underwent MRI. Benign lesions had significantly higher ADC values than malignant ones (P<.001). The mean ADCs of malignant lesions were 0.84±1.7×10⁻³ mm²/s, while the mean ADCs of the benign ones were 2.28±1.00×10⁻³ mm²/s. With respect to cutoff values of ADC: 1.11×10⁻³ mm²/s, sensitivity and negative predictive values were 100%, specificity was 78.6% and positive predictive value was 83.3%. For b800 and ADC map images, there were statistically significant differences on visual assessment. All malignant lesions had variable degrees of high signal intensity whereas eight of the 16 benign ones had low signal intensities on b800 images (P<.001). On ADC map images, all malignant lesions were hypointense and most of the benign ones (n=11, 68.7%) were hyperintense (P<.001).

Conclusion

DW imaging can be used for reliable discrimination of benign and malignant pediatric abdominal mass lesions based on considerable differences in the ADC values and signal intensity changes.