Quantifying Enhanced Oil Recovery in Synthetic Media with MicroCT

International audienceEnhanced oil recovery methods are tested and optimized in syntheticmedia, emulating porosity and permeability of real oil-bearing rocks.Such a medium was produced with sintered bi-disperse glass beads andmicroCT images (4 µm resolution) were acquired at different stages offluid motion through the medium. Synthetic seawater with or without oil/water emulsion was used to recover oil previously saturating the medium´spores. The water was doped with KI to fine tune X-ray absorption. Thus,3D images showing the beads, doped water and residual oil presenteda 3-modal histogram. After denoising with a non-local means filter, theimages were segmented and the distribution of residual oil ganglia wasvisualized and quantified. Probability density functions of volumes (~10^4ganglia spanning 8 orders of magnitude) show well defined exponentialbehaviors for the displacement of oil by water, while the use of emulsionsprovides better recovery efficiency with larger numbers of larger gangli

PHOTOLUMINESCENCE OF LIF CRYSTAL COLORED BY A FOCUSED ELECTRON-BEAM

The absorption, emission and excitation optical spectra of F2+ and F3+ color centers generated in LiF through low energy (30 keV) electron beam irradiation were measured at room temperature by pumping with an Ar+ laser the resulting thin colored layer. A quenching of the emission intensity of the F3+ centers versus the pump power was observed, with characteristics similar to bulk colored crystals. The analysis of the photoemission spectra showed a new band, which has been discovered previously also in bulk crystals colored and treated in different ways. The possibility of applications of the colored ribbon for miniaturized laser devices is commented