Confinement Correction to Mercury Intrusion Capillary Pressure of Shale Nanopores.

ABSTRACT: We optimized potential parameters in a molecular dynamics model to reproduce the experimental contact angle of a macroscopic mercury droplet on graphite. With the tuned potential, we studied the effects of pore size, geometry, and temperature on the wetting of mercury droplets confined in organic-rich shale nanopores. The contact angle of mercury in a circular pore increases exponentially as pore size decreases. In conjunction with the curvature-dependent surface tension of liquid droplets predicted from a theoretical model, we proposed a technique to correct the common interpretation procedure of mercury intrusion capillary pressure (MICP) measurement for nanoporous material such as shale. Considering the variation of contact angle and surface tension with pore size improves the agreement

SUBMITTER: Wang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735595 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature