A Universal Model of Water Flow Through Nanopores in Unconventional Reservoirs: Relationships Between Slip, Wettability and Viscosity

Abstract Understanding and controlling flow of the water confined in nanopores has tremendous implications in theoretical studies and industrial applications. Here we propose a universal model for the confined water flow based on a conception of effective slip, which is linear sum of true slip, only depending on wettability, and apparent slip, caused by the spatial variation of the confined water viscosity as a function of wettability as well as nanopores dimension. Results by the model show that the flow capacity of the confined water is 10−1~107 times of those calculated by no slip Hagen-Poiseuille equation for nanopores with various wettability, in agreement with 47 different cases from the literature. This work may shed light on the controversy over the increase or decrease in flow capacity from the MD simulations and experiments, and guide to tailor the nanopores structure for modulating the confined water flow in many engineering fields, including nanomedicine, water purification, energy storage as well as the flowback of fracture fluid in petroleum industry.