INFLUENCE OF SURFACTANT SORPTION ON CAPILLARY-PRESSURE SATURATION RELATIONSHIPS

The capillary pressure-saturation relationship, a fundamental relationship in the description of multiphase flow, depends on the interfacial properties of the system. Sorption of a cationic surfactant such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) at the various interfaces of a system changes interfacial properties such as electrophoretic mobility, interfacial tensions, and contact angle. The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of the changes in these interfacial properties on the capillary pressure-saturation relationships for the air-water-silica system. The results presented here show that as the sorption of CTAB increases, the naturally negatively-charged silica surface becomes positively charged. This change in charge is reflected in the contact angle which passes through a maximum when the electrophoretic mobility is close to zero. The spontaneous imbibition capillary pressure relationship is more sensitive to changes in interfacial properties than the drainage relationship. In the air-water-silica system studied here, no imbibition is observed at the maximum contact angle. The surface tension and contact angle can be used to predict both the drainage and imbibition relationships of the air-water-silica-CTAB systems from that of the air-water-silica system. The prediction is accomplished through scaling using the value of surface tension and the operational contact angle, which can be obtained from the intrinsic angle through the incorporation of corrections for roughness and interfacial curvature. A comparison of the measured and calculated capillary pressure relationships shows that it is possible to predict the effect of surfactant sorption on both drainage and imbibition capillary pressure-saturation relationships for the system studied.