Capturing the Dynamics of Foam Coarsening in a HPHT Microfluidic System

The foam coarsening process is significant to foam stability in porous media. This study provides, for the first time, direct visualization of the foam coarsening process in porous media under realistic reservoir conditions. Foam coarsening behavior in porous media has shown a similar linear increase in the average bubble area to that in an open system but differs in two stages. The average bubble area increases with a faster rate in stage 1 and then increases with a slower rate in stage 2 and stage 2 dominates the foam coarsening process. The transition between the two stages occurs as the inner bubbles disappear when the edge bubbles start feeling the effects of the walls. The foam at steady-state shows a bimodal size distribution with bubbles trapped in the pore bodies and pore throats. The effects of pore pressure (600-3200 psi) and temperature (22-100 °C) were studied. Foam coarsening dynamics are sensitive to pore pressure and temperature, where higher pore pressure and lower temperature are more favorable to maintain a stable foam. Finally, the coarsening rates of foams generated with different gas phases were compared. In contrast to N₂ foam and gas CO₂ foam, supercritical CO₂ foam exhibits the slowest coarsening rate because of its ultralow interfacial tension.