PNNL

Abstract

In steady gas-liquid flow in homogeneous porous media with surfactant present, there is often observed a critical injection velocity or pressure gradient ?grad p min? at which ?weak? or ?coarse? foam is abruptly converted into ?strong foam,? with reduction of one to two orders of magnitude in total mobility: i.e., ?foam generation.? Earlier research on foam generation is extended here with extensive data for a variety of porous media, permeabilities, gases (N2 and C02), surfactants, and temperatures. For bead and sandpacks, ?grad p min? scales like (1/k), where k is permeability, over 2 1/2 orders of magnitude in k; for consolidated media the relation is more complex. For dense C02 foam, ?grad p min? exists but can be less than 1 psi/ft. If pressure drop, rather than flow rates, is fixed, one observes and unstable regime between stable ?strong? and ?coarse? foam regimes; in the unstable regime ?grad p? is nonuniform in space or variable in time.