Study of gas flow dynamics in porous and granular media with laser-polarized ¹²⁹Xe NMR

This thesis presents Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies of gas flow dynamics in porous and granular media by using laser-polarized ¹²⁹Xe . Two different physical processes, the gas transport in porous rock cores and the mass exchanges between different phases in fluidized granular systems, were investigated and new experimental methods were designed to measure several important parameters characterizing the two systems. Methods for measuring the parameters had been either unavailable or significantly limited previously. The research involved modeling the gas flow in porous and granular media by relating the dynamics of spin magnetization to the interesting parameters, as well as correspondingly designing new measurement methods and verifying them on the laboratory test beds. We proposed a simple method to measure two important parameters of reservoir rocks, permeability and effective porosity, by probing the flow front of laser-polarized xenon gas inside the rock cores. The method was thoroughly tested on different categories of rocks with permeability values spanning two orders of magnitude, and the results were in agreement with those from the established techniques.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Ruopeng, 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ronald L. Walsworth and David G. Cory.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34652

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34652