Spatially Distributed Wettability Characterization in Porous Media
Abstract
An enhanced geometric algorithm for automated pore-by-pore contact angle measurement from micro-CT images, is presented that achieves superior accuracy compared to existing methods through robust fluid-fluid and solid-fluid interface extrapolation. Using this high resolution data, we generate spatially distributed contact angle maps that reveal previously hidden wettability heterogeneity. Our analysis of mixed-wet systems demonstrates the severe limitations of averaged metrics: a sample with a mean contact angle of 64.7 degrees, conventionally classified as uniformly weakly water-wet, exhibits 40% of its pore space in the intermediate-wetting regime (70-110 degrees). This heterogeneity explains the presence of minimal surface interfaces and fundamentally different pore-filling mechanisms operating within the same sample. By providing open-source tools for spatially-resolved wettability characterization, this work enables more accurate predictions of multiphase flow behavior in heterogeneous porous materials, essential for optimizing subsurface energy storage and recovery processes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.01617,
title = {Spatially Distributed Wettability Characterization in Porous Media},
author = {Faisal Aljaberi and Hadi Belhaj and Sajjad Foroughi and Mohammed Al-Kobaisi and Martin Blunt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.01617},
year = {2025}
}