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Capillarity 2022, 5(5): 83-90 https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2022.05.01
Original Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 10 August 2022

Experimental and numerical analysis of imbibition processes in a corrugated capillary tube

Show Author's Information Junjie Wang1,  Amgad Salama2,  Jisheng Kou1( )
Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing 312000, P. R. China
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina S4S 0A2, Canada
Keywords:
capillarity, Lucas-Washburn equation, imbibition model, Tolman length, fluid-wall friction
Cite this article:
Wang J, Salama A, Kou J. Experimental and numerical analysis of imbibition processes in a corrugated capillary tube. Capillarity, 2022, 5(5): 83-90. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2022.05.01
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Abstract Full text About this article

Spontaneous imbibition is a capillary-driven flow phenomenon that exists widely in nature and is important for several industries. Recently, Tolman length has been introduced to improve the classical Lucas-Washburn imbibition model, in order to alleviate the deviations in calculating the capillary pressure. However, imbibition experiments to measure Tolman length have been scarce. In addition, the fluid-wall friction has a considerable impact on the imbibition process, while it is often ignored. In this work, imbibition experiments under specific conditions are carried out to measure the values of Tolman length, and the fluid-wall friction is taken into consideration in the equilibrium equation. The water uptake model in fractures is adopted to make corrections to the rise of water level. The experimental results show that Tolman length decreases first and then rises with the increasing curvature radius of liquid-gas interface. The data reveal that the Tolman length-based model can better describe the real imbibition processes than the classical Lucas-Washburn model.


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Experimental and numerical analysis of imbibition processes in a corrugated capillary tube

Show Author's information Junjie Wang1, Amgad Salama2, Jisheng Kou1( )
Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing 312000, P. R. China
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina S4S 0A2, Canada

Abstract

Spontaneous imbibition is a capillary-driven flow phenomenon that exists widely in nature and is important for several industries. Recently, Tolman length has been introduced to improve the classical Lucas-Washburn imbibition model, in order to alleviate the deviations in calculating the capillary pressure. However, imbibition experiments to measure Tolman length have been scarce. In addition, the fluid-wall friction has a considerable impact on the imbibition process, while it is often ignored. In this work, imbibition experiments under specific conditions are carried out to measure the values of Tolman length, and the fluid-wall friction is taken into consideration in the equilibrium equation. The water uptake model in fractures is adopted to make corrections to the rise of water level. The experimental results show that Tolman length decreases first and then rises with the increasing curvature radius of liquid-gas interface. The data reveal that the Tolman length-based model can better describe the real imbibition processes than the classical Lucas-Washburn model.

Keywords: capillarity, Lucas-Washburn equation, imbibition model, Tolman length, fluid-wall friction

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Received: 25 May 2022
Revised: 14 July 2022
Accepted: 05 August 2022
Published: 10 August 2022
Issue date: October 2022

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© The Author(s) 2022.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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