An online dynamic method based on electrical conductivity probe, tensiometer and datataker was presented to measure saturation-capillary pressure (S-p) relation in water-light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) two-phase sandy medium under water level fluctuation. Three-electrode electrical conductivity probe (ECP) was used to measure water saturation. Hydrophobic tensiometer was obtained by spraying waterproof material to the ceramic cup of commercially available hydrophilic tensiometer. A couple of hydrophilic tensiometer and hydrophobic tensiometer were used to measure pore water pressure and pore LNAPL pressure of the sandy medium, respectively. All the signals from ECP and tensiometer were collected by a data taker connected with a computer. The results show that this method can finish the measurement of S-p relation of a complete drainage or imbibition process in less than 60 min. It is much more timesaving compared with 10-40 d of traditional methods. Two cycles of water level fluctuation were produced, and four saturation-capillary pressure relations including two stable residual LNAPL saturations of the sandy medium were obtained during in 350 h. The results show that this method has a good durable performance and feasibility in the porous medium with complicated multiphase flow. Although further studies are needed on the signal stability and accuracy drift of the ECP, this online dynamic method can be used successfully in the rapid characterization of a LNAPL migration in porous media.
The hysteresis of saturation-capillary pressure(S-p) relations was investigated in a fine sandy medium under consecutive drainage-imbibition cycles,which resulted from scheduled water level fluctuations.A drainage-imbibition cycle starts with a drainage process and ends with an imbibition process in sequence.The saturation and capillary pressure were measured online with time domain reflectometry(TDR) probes and T5 tensiometers,respectively.Results show that the relation between the degree of hysteresis and the number of the drainage-imbibition cycles is not obvious.However,the degree decreases with the increase of the initial water saturation of the imbibition processes in these drainage-imbibition cycles.The air-entry pressure of a sandy medium is also found to be constant,which is independent of the drainage-imbibition cycles and the initial water saturation of the drainage process.In all the imbibition processes,parameter α of the van Genuchten(VG) model decreases with the increase of the initial water saturation,which corresponds positively to the magnitude of the hysteresis.
