Two Phase Flow in Porous Media: Scaling of NAPL Displacement by Water Flooding on a X-Y Plane

When performing experimental work to study the recovery of NAPLs (non aqueous phase liquids) from porous media by water flood, scaling seems to be a critical step in the production of useful data that can be obtained from lab experiments. During many years, scaling was a very common technique in the petroleum industry. This technique was highly developed in the oil field in order to achieve greater efficiencies in the oil recovery process from porous media. However, this has not been widely investigated within the groundwater contamination and cleanup field. Many of the scaling parameters that were highly studied for petroleum recovery have not yet been studied for the recovery of NAPLs from contaminated aquifers. Through this investigation it is observed that a scaling equation based on a modification of the scaling equation presented by Craig et al. (1955) for petroleum recovery, can be used for scaling NAPL recovery from a contaminated aquifer. Laboratory experiments are performed which are based on the usage of a two-dimensional areal physical model that simulates an aquifer contaminated with a NAPL. Features of the physical model include background water flow and injection and recovery wells located in a five spot pattern.