The Influence of the Hypergravity Field During Bubble Ripening in Porous Media

With the development of carbon dioxide geological storage, the Ostwald ripening process in pores has attracted the attention of researchers due to its application to storage stability problems. However, this process is difficult to reproduce accurately in the laboratory due to the large mass transfer time scale. This article utilizes two theoretical models of gravity‐induced ripening to analyze the influence of the hypergravity field on the process. It is concluded that a decades‐long mass transfer process can be shortened to 10 days if the acceleration of gravity is increased by 1,000 times. Moreover, if the scaling laws are considered, a scaled hypergravity model can be used to reproduce long‐term and large‐scale geological phenomena in a short period, facilitating future research on the Ostwald ripening process in hypergravity centrifuges. Plain Language Summary Traditionally, capillary trapping is considered stable and safe for carbon dioxide geological storage. Ostwald ripening is a thermodynamic equilibrium process which coarsens the dispersed phase in the porous media. However, gravity changes the Ostwald ripening process of the bubbles on a geological time scale of thousands of years or more, causing the bubbles to migrate upward. In this study, we show that the hypergravity model can reproduce this phenomenon in a scaled model. Key Points Gravity influences Ostwald ripening of bubbles, causing CO2 to migrate upwards; this process can be accelerated by the hypergravity field Hypergravity model provides results similar to actual conditions at much shorter simulation time The similarity between the hypergravity model and the full‐scale model can be analyzed according to the scaling laws