Mobility of Foam in Heterogeneous Media: Flow Parallel and Perpendicular to Stratification

Abstract

Summary Experiments in homogeneous and heterogeneous sand-packed columns showed that the foam mobility in the two cases could differ by two orders of magnitude. The difference is because of the generation of foam lamellae by snap-off for flow across an abrupt increase in permeability. This mechanism is shown to be dependent on the degree of permeability contrast and the gas fractional flow. It has important implications for the degree of gravity segregation of gas and liquid in field-scale recovery processes.