Abstract
Wettability determination is of crucial importance for multiphase flow in porous media. Currently available methods are either applied to simplified geometries (sessile drop) or are time-consuming (Amott, USBM) and cost-intensive (micro-CT scanning). The purpose of this study is to systematically test the streaming potential method as a fast, cheap, and in situ applicable method for surface probing and determination of the wetting state of soda lime glass beads through zeta potential. Different wetting states are achieved by means of silanization and are characterized by an average contact angle. Comparison of contact angles measured by sessile drop on plate geometries and contact angles derived from bead pack micro-CT images confirmed that the treatment is transferable to the bead packs. The correlation between the zeta potential of the single bead size packing with a single wetting state and the contact angle is non-unique over the entire range of tested treatment volume ratios. The contact angle plateaus at higher degrees of silanization, while the zeta potential values still change. Before the plateau, a correlation between contact angle and zeta potential is present. Zeta potential measurements on the mixtures of the same-sized beads with two different wetting states confirm the existing theory that the apparent zeta potential is a surface area-weighted average of constituents. For a mixture where the zeta potential is size dependent, a new correlation for a dual bead system was derived. The non-unique correlation between zeta potential and contact angle, combined with a bead size-dependent zeta potential, will limit the use of zeta potential for contact angle derivation for the system of soda lime glass beads with various silanization coatings used here. Monitoring relative changes of wetting conditions might still be possible.