On the impact of surface energy in rock-fluid interfacial interactions in porous media

Rock-fluid interfacial interactions in porous media are of great practical implications. The conventional view of the interfacial interactions in petroleum engineering is limited primarily to wettability and zeta-potential measurements. To take a closer look at the interfacial interactions, though, they could also be investigated with respect to the rock-fluid surface energy characteristics. Accordingly, this study overviews those of previous works dealt with the rock-fluid interfacial interactions from surface energy perspective. The results show the pivotal role of surface energy in explaining the interfacial phenomena occurring at the rock-fluid interfaces.

Keywords:

Surface energy , Interfacial interaction , porous media , Lewis acid-base , Interaction energy