The Streaming Potential and the Rheology of Foam

Abstract

Abstract An experimental study of the flow of fine-textured, aqueous foams through Pyrex tubes is described. The foams range in quality F (ratio of gas volume to total volume) from 0.70 to 0.96 and behave like pseudoplastic fluids. At lower flow rates they exhibit laminar flow and have apparent viscosities which increase with quality, and which cover a range of 15 cp to 255 poise for tubes of 0.25- to 1.50-mm radius ri. At higher flow rates a plug-like type of flow is developed, the extent of which increases with both and ri. When the same foams flow through either open or packed Pyrex tubes, remarkably high streaming potentials phi E are often generated. These can easily reach 50v if nonionic foaming agents are used, but are at least an order of magnitude less for ionic foaming agents. A linear relationship between phi E and the pressure differential phi p is observed; this usually extrapolates to positive values of phi p at phi E of zero. The slope of the line increases with both F and ri. An equation was derived to describe the streaming potential of non-Newtonian fluids in circular tubes and was used to correlate experimental results. The calculated potential is are of the right order of magnitude. Introduction Foams are both unusual and intriguing in their physical properties, and have been the subject of many scientific studies. However, present knowledge of foams is still fragmentary, specific and often contradictory. Apparent viscosity of foam is the physical property of greatest interest to both rheologists and engineers. Sibree reported that the apparent viscosity decreased with increasing shear rate in a manner similar to some non-Newtonian fluids. Penny and Blackman reported that fire-fighting foams had both a limiting shear stress and a tensile yield stress. There is little doubt that some foams at least behave like non-Newtonian fluids, and have apparent viscosities considerably higher than those of either constituent phase. The high apparent viscosity of foam with its concomitant effect on mobility ratio and sweep efficiency no doubt prompted several attempts by research groups to use foam as a displacing agent in porous media. Based on recent experience, most of these groups probably succeeded in completely blocking fluid flow in the porous media and then abandoned their efforts. Two groups apparently found the successful combination of experimental parameters at about the same time. Others have recently added to our knowledge-of foam flow in porous media and its use as a displacing agent. An experimental problem encountered by Fried was a transient blockage of foam flow in porous media when distilled water was used to prepare the foam-producing solution. Fried surmised that this was due to an electrokinetic effect and he eliminated it by using electrolytes in preparing foaming solutions. He also measured the streaming potential of a number of foams in capillary tubes which he found to be appreciably higher than those obtained when the constituent liquid flowed under comparable conditions. This paper presents results of a more comprehensive study of the streaming potential generated by aqueous foam flowing in both open and packed Pyrex tubes. It also adds to knowledge of the rheology of these foams as deduced from their flow behavior in open tubes. APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE A diagram of the apparatus used is shown in Fig. 1. Details of its construction, testing and use are described elsewhere. Careful selection of materials, extreme cleanliness and rather elaborate electrical insulation and shielding were necessary to obtain reproducible results (15 percent). Both streaming potential and streaming current were measured with an electrometer. The design of the foam generator developed for this work is novel (Fig. 2). SPEJ P. 359ˆ