1 MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, Enhanced Oil Recovery Research Center, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China|2 China Sonangol International Limited, Shanghai 200060, China

The flow characteristics of deionized water in hydrophilic and hydrophobic microtubes with diameters of 14.9, 5.03 and 2.05 μm are investigated experimentally. The results indicate that the flow character-istics of deionized water in microtubes with diameter of 14.9 μm are in agreement with the classical Hagen-Poiseuille (H-P) equation, but for hydrophilic and hydrophobic microtubes with smaller diame-ters, the results show significant departure from the prediction of conventional theory, and the dis-crepancies are influenced by wettability of the microtubes and increase as the Reynolds numbers de-crease. Besides, flows of fluid in cores are the macroscopic reflection of flows in countless mi-cron-sized pore throats, the influence of wettability on microscale flow in pore throats will cause the change of seepage characteristic in cores. Therefore, flow experiments of brine through cores with different wettabilities are conducted. The results demonstrate that wettability exerts similar influence on water flows in cores and microtubes.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50574060) and National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2005CB221303)