PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Volume 49, Issue 2, April 2022

Online English edition of the Chinese language journal

Cite this article as: PETROL. EXPLOR. DEVELOP., 2022, 49(2): 374–381. RESEARCH PAPER

Imbibition characteristics of sandstone cores with

different permeabilities in nanofluids
QIU Rundong1, 2, 3, GU Chunyuan1, 2, 3, *, XUE Peiyu1, 2, 3, XU Dongxing1, 2, 3, GU Ming4
1. School of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China;
2. Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai 200072, China;
3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics in Energy Engineering, Shanghai 200072, China;
4. Suzhou Niumag Analytical Instrument Corporation, Suzhou 215163, China

Abstract: The core imbibition and shifting nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging experiment has loss of surface oil
phase and air adsorption, which will affect the accuracy of the experiment result. To solve this issue, a modified experiment
method, in-situ imbibition NMR method has been worked out. This method was used to carry out sandstone core imbibition
experiment in nanofluid, and the oil migration images in the entire process were recorded. In combination with physical
properties of the sandstone cores and the variations of the driving force during the imbibition process, imbibition characteris-
tics of the sandstone cores with different permeabilities in nanofluid were analyzed. The results show that: the nanofluid can
greatly reduce the interfacial tension of oil phase and improve the efficiency of imbibition and oil discharge, the higher the
concentration, the lower the interfacial tension and the higher the efficiency of imbibition and oil discharge would be, but
when the concentration reaches a certain value, the increase in imbibition and oil discharge efficiency slows down; the rise of
temperature can reduce the oil viscosity resistance and interfacial tension, and hence enhance the imbibition and oil discharge
rate; when the sandstone core is higher in permeability, the bottom crude oil would migrate upward and discharge during the
imbibition, the higher the permeability of the sandstone core, the more obvious this phenomenon would be, and the phe-
nomenon is shown as top oil discharge characteristic; when the sandstone core is low in permeability, the crude oil in the outer
layer of the sandstone core would discharge first during the imbibition, then crude oil in the inside of the core would disperse
outside and discharge, which is shown as oil discharge characteristic around the core; but under long time effect of nanofluid,
the core would become more and more water-wet and reduce in the oil-water interfacial tension, so would have top oil dis-
charge characteristic in the later stage of imbibition.

Key words: nanofluid; sandstone cores; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; imbibition characteristics; oil discharge efficiency

Introduction Scholars across the world have carried out a large

Unconventional oil and gas resources are rich in
China [1]. Fracturing stimulation is always used to devel-
opment in low permeability, tight and shale oil and gas
reservoirs. Fracture network is formed in the reservoirs
through fracturing construction, so that the well-con-
trolled reserves can be increased and flow capacity is
improved. Imbibition and oil discharge play a very im-
portant role in the flow of unconventional oil reservoirs
and is an important factor affecting the production rate
and efficiency.
number of studies on imbibition mechanism [2–5], imbibi-
tion effect and influencing factors [6–9]. Cai et al. studied
the imbibition mechanism by using the fractal the-
ory [10–11]. Yang et al. developed a physical simulation
method for imbibition in different scales of cores, and
investigated the influencing factors on the imbibition
process in tight reservoirs, and constructed a quantitative
evaluation method for imbibition in water flooding [12].
Aghabarari et al. [13] confirmed the significant effect of re-
infiltration on naturally fractured reservoirs, and pro-

Received date: 01 Jul. 2021; Revised date: 12 Feb. 2022.

* Corresponding author. E-mail: wein1989@163.com
Foundation item: Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 51274136); Shanghai Key Discipline Construction Project (NO.
S30106); Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics Application in Energy Engineering and Key Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission
(Construction Project of Peak Discipline).
https://doi.org/10.1016/3804(22)60031-4
Copyright © 2022, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, PetroChina. Publishing Services provided by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi
Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 QIU Rundong et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2022, 49(2): 374–381
posed a governing equation for oil discharge in a matrix
block during the re-infiltration process. Andersen et al. [14]
established an imbibition flow model for the interaction
between water, oil and rock, and discussed the influence
of viscosity on imbibition. Viscous coupling is beneficial
to dynamic imbibition, but it is not beneficial to sponta-
neous imbibition. Qin et al. [15] developed a dynamic
pore-network model, and analyzed complex pore with
triangular, square, and circular cross-section shapes on
imbibition efficiency and imbibition rate. Wang et al. [16]
established an imbibition model for fractured reservoirs,
and found that oil saturation was low in the lower part of
the core and near-fracture surface zone, but it was the
highest at the two horizontal ends perpendicular to the
fracture during dynamic imbibition. Cheng et al. [17] and
Wang et al. [18] studied the spontaneous imbibition of du-
al-porosity oil reservoirs and gas reservoirs by using the
inclined capillary model, and obtained the maximum
displacement and migration time of liquid imbibition by
considering factors such as gravity, dynamic contact an-
gle and fracture width.
A large number of experiments showed that surfac-
tants can reduce interfacial tension and improve effi-
ciency of imbibition and oil discharge (the percentage of
oil discharged from a core to the total oil content) [5, 19].
However, the imbibition driving force gradually changes
from capillary force to gravity as the surface tension de-
creases and the capillary force decreases, which is not
conducive to imbibition. Schechter et al. [20] proposed that
the inverse Bond number should be used as the basis for
steering judgment. If the inverse Bond number is greater
than 5, capillary force is the dominant factor. If the in-
verse Bond number is less than 1, gravity is dominant.
When the inverse Bond number ranges from 1 to 5 [20],
both forces take into effect.
Nanofluids have been an important target in recent
years for improving the effect of imbibition and oil dis-
charge [3, 21]. Compared with a surfactant system, a nan-
ofluid complex system has a synergistic effect of wet-
tability switch and reducing surface tension [3]. Xu et al. [3]
compared the efficiency of imbibition and oil discharge of
a non-ionic surfactant, a nano-SiO2 fluid and a compound
nanofluid of them. After the imbibition of salt wa-
ter-based liquid, the core imbibition rate and oil removal
rate in three systems are further increased by 2%–4%.
NMR imaging technology can directly reflect the dy-
namic characteristics of imbibition and oil discharge in
nanofluids. Zhao et al. [7] tested the NMR image of imbi-
bition of carbon nanofluid and found that the efficiency
of oil discharge in nanofluid increased with time. In
comparison, the imbibition efficiency in fresh water re-
mained almost unchanged after reached a certain degree.
Zhou et al. [22] recorded the imbibition process of nan-
ofluid and salt water in tight sandstone cores by using
 375 
NMR imaging, and the results showed that core imbibi-
tion of nanofluid can continuously advance to the core
center, while the imbibition of salt water can’t.
NMR imaging is an important method to detect the
distribution characteristics of crude oil during imbibition.
Its results are more intuitive and reliable, but there are
few studies on related mechanisms. This article aims at
the problems existing in the core imbibition and shifting
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging experiment,
such as the loss of surface oil phase and the adsorbing of
air. The experiment was improved, which contains design
of the in-situ imbibition NMR method. Using the method,
sandstone core imbibition experiments are carried out in
nanofluids, and the entire process of oil migrating image
is recorded. At the same time, the imbibition characteris-
tics of sandstone cores with different permeabilities in
nanofluids are analyzed based on the physical properties
of sandstone cores and the changes of driving force dur-
ing imbibition.
1. Experimental design
1.1. Experimental method of in-situ imbibition NMR
imaging
The basic method of core imbibition NMR imaging is
to take out the core regularly in the imbibition process,
and then put it into the core holder for imaging test. Af-
ter the test, put the core into the liquid to continue the
imbibition process, and thus operate repeatedly to com-
plete the whole experiment. This method can obtain the
changing core imbibition NMR images. However, the loss
of oil phase on the surface and the adsorption of air will
have a certain impact on the effect of oil discharge and
the change of the driving force during imbibition after
moving the core from original imbibition condition, and
consequently affecting the accuracy of the experimental
results. The experimental method is improved to solve
this problem, and the in-situ visualization experiment
method is designed. Namely during the whole experiment
process, the core saturated with oil is immersed in the
nanofluid all the time, and the NMR image is taken reg-
ularly without taking out the core. In other words, the
imbibition process is kept going on during the whole
experiment, so there is no loss of oil phase and air ad-
sorption phenomenon. Therefore, it will not affect the
effect of oil imbibition and the change of driving force in
the imbibition process. The specific experimental process
is as follows: (1) Put an oil-saturated core into an imbibi-
tion bottle. (2) Pour the prepared SNFQ nanofluid
(self-made nanofluid by Shanghai University Petroleum
Center) into the imbibition bottle. (3) Put the imbibition
bottle into the coil of the NMR instrument, and start the
software to automatically and regularly collect T2 (trans-
verse relaxation time) spectra and imaging data. The
volume of discharged oil can be directly read on the glass
 QIU Rundong et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2022, 49(2): 374–381

tube scale on the upper part of the imbibition bottle
(precision at 0.05 mL).
1.2. Equipment and materials
Equipment: MesoMR12-060V-I nuclear magnetic reso-
nance apparatus, BH-Ⅱ vacuum pressurized saturation
apparatus, SL-2 core porosity and permeability meas-
urement unit and several glass imbibition bottles. In the
experiment, the opening of the NMR instrument is up-
ward to facilitate the placement of the imbibition bot-
tle.
Liquid materials: (1) Prepared SNFQ nanofluid using
ordinary water, used for testing the concentration of
nanofluid. (2) Nanofluid prepared with deuterium oxide
for imbibition nuclear magnetic experiment. The deute-
rium oxide is produced by Beijing Bellingwei Technology
Co., LTD. The nano-powder is NP hydrophilic powder
(produced by Nanocentre of Shanghai University) with
particle sizes of 10–20 nm. Add the nano-powder into the
deuterium oxide and stir evenly to prepare the nanofluid
with a mass concentration of 0.15%–0.30%. Finally, the
nanofluids is dispersed by ultrasonic wave for 15 min. (3)
The oil sample is made of diesel oil and crude oil from
Xinjiang Karamay Oilfield at a ratio of 4 to 1, with a den-
sity of 0.835 mg/L.
Experimental cores: (1) Heterogeneous two-layer cores
provided by Beijing Shida Rongzhi Technology. (2) Artifi-
cial sandstone cores are non-magnetic cores made in
laboratory. (3) Natural cores are from Kramay Oilfield. All
the cores are hydrophilic or weakly hydrophilic, with
porosity ranging from 10.20% to 36.20% and gas perme-
ability of (0.013–1663)×10−3 μm2 (Table 1).
1.3. Content
According to the core permeability, set different ex-
perimental environment and experimental procedures,
three permeability experiments have been carried out: (1)
At room temperature (20 C), No. Y3–Y5 cores were se-
lected to carry out core imbibition experiment in nan-
ofluids prepared by ordinary water, focusing on the in-
fluence of nanofluid mass concentration on imbibition
and oil drainage, and determining the appropriate nan-
ofluid mass concentration. (2) Cores Y1–Y2 and Y7–Y12
were soaked in deuterium oxide-based nanofluids for 15 h
at room temperature (20 C), and then soaked at 80 C
for 5 h. Oil discharge, core in-situ NMR image and T2
spectrum were collected at different time periods. (3)
Core Y6 was used to soak in nanofluids prepared with
deuterium oxide for 8 d continuously, and data of NMR
image and T2 spectrum were collected at an interval of 4
h.
2. Influence factors on imbibition and oil
discharge in nanofluids
2.1. Nanofluid concentration
Cores Y3–Y5 are weak hydrophilic with permeability of
(1100–1250)×10−3 μm2. After saturated with crude oil, core
Y4 was soaked in fresh water for 16 h, and then immersed
in nanofluids with mass concentration of 0.5% for nearly
8 h. Cores Y3 and Y5 were immersed in nanofluids with
mass concentration of 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively for 16
h, and the results of efficiency of imbibition and oil dis-
charge were shown in Table 2.
The experimental results show that the imbibition and
oil discharge effect of core Y4 in fresh water is very poor,
with only a small amount of oil spout, and the efficiency
of imbibition and oil discharge (EIOD) is only 1.0%. After
the core was put into the nanofluid with 0.5% mass con-
centration, the EIOD was greatly increased to 61.1%. The
EIOD of core Y3 in the nanofluid with lower concentra-
tion is 6.8%. The EIOD of Y5 in the nanofluid with higher
concentration is better, up to 51.4%.
The main reason why nanofluids can greatly improve
the effect of imbibition and oil discharge is that it can
greatly reduce the interfacial tension of oil-water phase
and the resistance of imbibition and oil discharge. Fig. 1
shows the relationship between interfacial tension of
oil-water phase and nanofluids with different mass con-
centrations. The higher the concentration is, the lower
the interfacial tension is. However, when the mass con-
centration exceeds 0.3%, the interfacial tension decreases
slowly with the concentration. After comprehensively
considering imbibition efficiency and experiment

Table 1. Basic parameters of experiment cores

Core Diameter/ Length/ Porosity/ Permeability/ Saturated oil
Wettability Core type
No. cm cm % 10−3 μm2 volume/mL
Y1 2.52 4.67 28.49 1663 6.66 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y2 2.50 2.55 19.64 1400 2.47 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y3 2.52 3.03 34.60 1250 4.40 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y4 2.51 2.88 36.20 1150 4.09 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y5 2.52 3.01 34.40 1100 4.47 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y6 2.50 5.42 28.77 527 7.68 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y7 2.50 3.21 31.78 300/1500 5.03 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y8 2.52 2.87 25.93 16.500 3.72 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y9 2.53 2.91 10.26 8.150 1.50 Weak hydrophilic Artificial sandstone
Y10 2.50 2.58 15.06 0.710 2.80 Hydrophilic Natural sandstone
Y11 2.51 4.99 11.95 0.077 1.78 Hydrophilic Natural sandstone
Y12 2.51 4.99 10.20 0.013 1.45 Hydrophilic Natural sandstone
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Table 2. Imbibition and oil drainage effects in nanofluids 8.15×10−3 μm2 and Y11 with 0.08×10−3 μm2, oil discharge
with different concentrations was slow and started at 2.0 and 3.0 h respectively. The
Core Mass concentration Imbibition Efficiency of oil initial oil discharge time is negatively correlated with the
number of nanofluids/% time/h discharge/% permeability. (3) When the experimental temperature is
Y4 0 16 1.0 80 C and imbibition for 15–20 h, it can be seen that the
Y4 0.50 8 61.1 EIOD of all cores were significantly increased because
Y3 0.20 16 6.8
both the viscosity resistance and the interfacial tension
Y5 0.30 16 51.4
decrease with the increase of temperature. The increase
of temperature is beneficial for imbibition and oil dis-
charge.
The EIOD per unit time is defined as imbibition rate.
Fig. 3 shows the correlation curve of imbibition rate and
imbibition time. (1) When the experimental temperature
is 20 C and the imbibition time is 0–15 h, the change of
imbibition rate is different from that of EIOD. The higher
the core permeability, the shorter the time of imbibition
rate increase is. After 2.0 h of imbibition, the imbibition
rate of cores Y1 and Y7 began to decrease. For the other
cores, the time of imbibition rate beginning to decline
was about 4 h. The specific reason is that Y1 and Y7 have
Fig. 1. The relationship between mass concentration of high permeability, low resistance and fast oil discharge
nanofluids and interfacial tension.
rate, and reach the peak of oil discharge earlier. However,
time, the mass concentration of 0.3% is taken as an op- other cores have low permeability, high imbibition resis-
timal value and used in the rest experiments. tance, low discharge speed and late starting point, so they
need long time to reach peak oil discharge; (2) When the
2.2. Core permeability and experimental temperature experiment temperature is 80 C at 15 h to 20 h of imbi-
The cores of Y1–Y2 and Y7–Y12 were soaked for 15 h in bition, similarly, the imbibition rate increased firstly and
nanofluid with mass concentration of 0.3% at room then decreased. Because viscous resistance and interfa-
temperature (20 C), and then soaked for 5 h at 80 C. Fig. cial tension reduced at high temperature, and the force
2 shows the relationship between EIOD and imbibition balance between oil and water was broken at certain time,
time of five cores. It can be seen that: (1) When the ex- and promoted the discharge of oil. But the force tended
perimental temperature is 20 C and the imbibition time to reach balance again with time, so the imbibition rate
is 0–15 h, the EIOD curve increases rapidly in the initial decreased.
period (0–4 h) and then increases slowly; (2) The higher 2.3. Pore size of cores
the permeability is, the larger the pore diameter is, the
smaller the flow resistance is, and the earlier the initial Fig. 4 shows the T2 spectrum curves of cores Y1, Y8 and
time of imbibition and oil discharge is. According to the Y11 at different imbibition time in nanofluid with mass
experimental observation record, oil discharge started concentration of 0.3% at room temperature. The area
after 0.5 h in core Y1 with permeability of 1663×10−3 μm2. enveloped by the curve and horizontal axis represents the
The oil discharge started after about 1.0 h in core Y8 with oil content in the core, while the relaxation time axis
permeability of 16.5×10−3 μm2. In Y9 with permeability of represents the pore size. The longer the relaxation time,

Fig. 3. Relationship between imbibition rate and imbibition

Fig. 2. Relationship between EIOD and imbibition time. time of the oil.
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Fig. 4. T2 spectrum curves of cores Y1, Y8 and Y11 at different imbibition times.

Fig. 5. Appearance photos of imbibition and oil drainage of cores Y10 and Y3.

the larger the pore size is. The figure shows that: (1) The
right peak of the T2 spectrum curve of core Y1 is the
highest, the corresponding relaxation time is 117 ms, and
the core storing space is dominated by large seized pore-
throat. With the extension of imbibition time, only the
right peak of the T2 spectrum curve decreases signifi-
cantly, indicating that the imbibition process is mainly in
large pores and throats. The left peak of the curve almost
does not change, indicating that oil in small pores and
throats is difficult to discharge. (2) The relaxation time of
the T2 spectrum of core Y8 is 72 ms corresponding to the
highest peak, the core storing space is mainly medium-
sized pores and throats. With the extension of imbibition
time, the peak of the T2 spectrum curve drops sharply,
and the left peak also declines to some extent, indicating
that imbibition and oil drainage process is mainly carried
out in medium pores and throats, while oil in small pores
is also released with limited contribution. (3) The left
peak of the T2 spectrum curve of core Y11 is the highest,
corresponding relaxation time is 0.9 ms. The core space is
dominated by small pores and throats. With the extension
of imbibition time, only the left peak of the T2 spectrum
curve decreases significantly, and the imbibition and oil
discharge process is mainly carried out in small pores
and throats. There is only a slight change in the right
peak of the curve, indicating that oil discharge occurs in
smaller pores and throats, while larger pores are not the
main site but as main flowing channels.
3. Characteristics of imbibition and oil discharge
in cores with different permeabilities
3.1. Appearances of imbibition and oil discharge
Fig. 5 shows the appearance photos of cores Y10 and Y3
in nanofluid with mass concentration of 0.3% at room
temperature. The permeability of core Y10 is 0.71×10−3
μm2, and the permeability of Y3 is 1250×10−3 μm2. On
these photos, after soaking for 0.5 h, oil droplets ap-
peared on the top of both cores, but no oil on the sides.
After soaking for 80 s more, the oil droplets on core Y3
leaked out and appeared necking and breaking phe-
nomenon, while the droplets of Y10 core didn’t show ob-
vious change. After soaking for 128 s more, the oil drop-
lets of core Y10 became a little larger but still not drained
away, while more oil droplets of core Y3 were discharged
at the original position. It shows that the higher the core
permeability, the stronger the driving force of oil dis-
charge is, and the smaller the resistance is. Discharging
channels have occurred and forming forward imbibition.
When core permeability is low, the driving force is weak
and the resistance is large, and it will take longer time to
form oil discharge channels.
3.2. Imbibition and oil migration inside the core
Fig. 6 shows the NMR images of cores Y1, Y6, Y8 and
Y10 after different imbibition hours in nanofluid with
mass concentration of 0.3% at room temperature. The
nanofluid was prepared with deuterium oxide and has no
nuclear magnetic signal, as shown in blue. The nuclear
magnetic signal of crude oil is shown in red. The darker
the color, the higher the oil content and the stronger the
signal is. The color changing from red to green, from light
blue to dark blue represents the signals from strong to
weak, and also represents the oil content from high to low.
The permeability of core Y1 is 1663×10−3 μm2, and that
of core Y6 is 527×10−3 μm2. It can be seen that the image
changes of the two cores have similar characteristics. The

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Fig. 6. NMR images of cores Y1, Y6, Y8 and Y10 at different imbibition time.

overall image signal weakens at the beginning of imbibi- upward. The oil is discharged mainly by capillary force
tion, and then weakens faster at the bottom of the cores, along the nearest core wall.
slower in the middle and upper edges, indicating that the
3.3. Imbibition and oil migration in the two-layer
crude oil in the bottom is discharged faster than that in
core
the middle and upper edges. The bottom signal of core Y1
began to weaken significantly at 1 h and presented an When a core is immersed in the same liquid environ-
inverted triangular image 20 h later. The bottom signal of ment, the force type acted on oil droplets in different
core Y6 began to weaken slightly at 4 h and presented a pore channels is consistent, but the magnitudes of the
fingerlike image 20 h later. This phenomenon is more forces are different, and the characteristics of imbibition
likely to occur in cores with higher permeability. This is are different. In order to ensure the exact same imbibi-
because the higher the core permeability, the larger the tion environment, the double-layer heterogeneous artifi-
pore size is. Especially for a hydrophilic core, oil adhesion cial sandstone core (Y7) was selected for the imbibition
is weak and friction resistance on the pore-throat wall is experiment. The two layers of the core were prepared by
small, so oil is driven upward by buoyancy and capillary quartz sand with different particle sizes under the same
force, which can overcome the influence of gravity and condition, and their wettability is completely identical.
friction on the pore wall. The left part has permeability of 300×10−3 μm2, and the
The permeability of core Y8 is 16.50×10−3 μm2, and that right has 1500×10−3 μm2.
of core Y10 is 0.71×10−3 μm2, the changing characteristic is The NMR imaging of core Y7 in nanofluid with mass
concentration of 0.3% at room temperature is shown in
different from that of cores Y1 and Y6. It shows that the
Fig. 7. The right side of the core has high permeability,
nuclear magnetic signal around the core weakens quickly,
large pore space, high oil content and strong signals. In
and then the trending gradually extends inward, indi-
cating that the crude oil around the core is discharged
first during imbibition. Then the internal crude oil dif-
fuses and is discharged (the bright bar at the bottom of
core Y10 means the residual gelatine in the process of
placing the core by the oil discharge instrument, which
does not affect the experimental results). Pores in the
core with low permeability are small, so the capillary
force is relatively large, the friction on the pore wall is
large. As a result, the buoyancy and capillary force on oil
is not enough to overcome the impact of pore wall fric-
tion and gravity, and it is difficult to drive oil moving Fig. 7. NMR images of core Y7 at different imbibition time.

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 QIU Rundong et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2022, 49(2): 374–381
the process of soaking, the image signal changes from
strong to weak from top to bottom, showing the charac-
teristics of oil discharged from the top of the core. The
permeability of the left side of the core is relatively low,
the pore space is relatively small, and the oil content is
relatively low, so the signal is relatively weak. In the pro-
cess of soaking, the image signal gradually becomes
stronger from the periphery to the interior, which shows
the imbibition characteristics of the crude oil around the
core is discharged first, and then the inner crude oil dif-
fuses out to the periphery.
3.4. Long-time and continuous imbibition and oil
discharge
Fig. 8 shows the NMR images at different time of Y6
core soaked in nanofluid with mass concentration of
0.3% for 8 d at room temperature. The permeability of
core Y6 is 527×10−3 μm2. It can be seen that: (1) At the
initial stage of imbibition (1–3 h), the overall image signal
of core is obviously weakened, the crude oil in the sur-
rounding of the core discharges first, and then crude oil
in the center of the core disperses towards outside. (2) In
the middle stage of imbibition (3–96 h), the signals at the
bottom begin to be weakened at 3–15 h compared to the
top, and the image appeared "finger-like" characteristics
at 24 h. At the same time, the signals of the core are
weakened overall, but the phenomenon on the lower edge
of core is more obvious, indicating some oil droplets mi-
grated from bottom to top. (3) In the later stage of imbi-
bition (after more than 96 h), the nuclear magnetic sig-
nals are weakened further, and the weakening degree in
the bottom part is obviously greater than that in the up-
per part, and the oil droplet migration from bottom to
top is more obvious. The imbibition characteristics of
medium-permeability cores are similar to those of
low-permeability cores in the early stage, and similar to
those of high-permeability cores in the mid-late stage.
This is because that medium-permeability core was im-
mersed in nanofluids for a long time, so the core wet-
tability was improved and the hydrophilicity was en-
Fig. 8. NMR images of core Y6 with continuous oil imbibition and drainage for a long time.
 380 
hanced, at the same time oil-water interfacial tension was
reduced. The influence of these effects will extend from
core surface to the center with soaking time, and break
the balance of three-phase interface of water-oil-core, and
finally change the way of crude oil discharge.
3.5. Mechanism of imbibition and oil discharge in
nanofluids
The nanofluids have the ability to change an oil-wet
core to a water-wet core, or enhance the hydrophilicity of
a water-wet core. Also, nanofluids can reduce the surface
tension and induce structural separation pressure to dis-
place oil at the three-phase interface [23]. When a core is
immersed in nanofluid, the oil, nanofluid and core grad-
ually approach to a three-phase interface balance, then
the nanofluid begins to displace the oil droplets while the
three-phase contact line moves forward and temporarily
forms a dynamic balance. Nanofluid can reduce oil-water
interfacial tension and converts oil-wet pore wall to hy-
drophilic (or enhances hydrophilicity), so as to change
the affecting direction of capillary force (or increase
capillary force). Forced by the structural separation pres-
sure from the three-phase interface where nanoparticles
accumulate, the interface balance is broken, and the
three-phase interface line moves forward. Finally, a new
three-phase balance appears. Again and again, the oil is
gradually drained out. Nanofluids can improve the effect
of imbibition and oil discharge, which is a synergistic
effect of the wettability reversal of an oil-wet core (or
increasing the hydrophilicity of a water-wet core), the
reduction of interfacial tension and the formation of
structural separation pressure. Therefore, when a core is
immersed in nanofluid or surfactant, the EIOD rises
slowly with time. But in water, it is easy to reach imbibi-
tion equilibrium and the EIOD won’t rise any longer [3].
4. Conclusions
Nanofluids can greatly reduce oil-water interfacial ten-
sion and improve the efficiency of imbibition and oil
discharge (EIOD). The higher the concentration, the
 QIU Rundong et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2022, 49(2): 374–381
lower the interfacial tension, and the higher the EIOD
will be. However, when the concentration reaches a certain
value, the increase rate of EIOD tends to be slow. With the
increase of temperature, the viscosity resistance and inter-
facial tension of crude oil reduce, and the EIOD increases.
For the core with high permeability, the oil at the bot-
tom may migrate upward and be discharged during im-
bibition. The higher the core permeability is, the more
obvious this phenomenon, which is manifested as oil
discharged at the top of core. For the core with relatively
low permeability, the crude oil around the core is dis-
charged first, and then the crude oil in the center dis-
perses outward, showing the characteristics of sur-
rounding oil discharge. The characteristics of imbibition
and oil discharge of a medium-permeability core are sim-
ilar to those of a low-permeability core in the early stage,
and tend to be similar to those of high-permeability core
in the middle and late stages. After being soaked in
nanofluid a long time, the hydrophilicity of the core may
increase continuously, the oil-water interface tension may
decrease continuously, and oil may be discharged at the
top in the middle and late stages.
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