Quantitative analysis of phase topology evolution during three-phase displacements in porous media.

Multiphase flow in subsurface formations is the essence of aquifer remediation and petroleum recovery processes, where the phase mobilities are greatly influenced by phase topologies. Yet, flow models rarely utilize quantified phase topologies due to the limited availability of such data. Here, we conducted cutting-edge experiments using a micromodel together with a state-of-the-art automated imaging system to capture images with high temporal and areal resolution to characterize the phase topologies for three-phase displacements.