Characterization of carbon dioxide leakage process along faults in the laboratory

It is important to understand the process of multiphase carbon dioxide(CO_(2))leakage in faults for the risk assessment of carbon capture and storage(CCS).To quantitatively characterize the CO_(2)leakage process in the fault,pressure sensors,fiber Bragg grating(FBG)temperature and strain sensors were simultaneously used to monitor CO_(2)leakage in the fault.Ten experiments were carried out,including five groups of gaseous CO_(2)leakage tests with initial pressures of 1-5 MPa and five groups of liquid CO_(2)leakage tests with initial pressures of 6-10 MPa.The results indicate that when liquid CO_(2)leaked with an initial pressure of 7-10 MPa,the pressure and temperature of CO_(2)dropped rapidly in the first few seconds and then remained unchanged.The behavior that CO_(2)continues to leak while maintaining temperature and pressure unchanged is defined as“temporary pseudo-sealing(TPS)”behavior,which continues for the first 1/3 of the leakage period.However,this TPS behavior did not occur in gaseous CO_(2)leakage.If only the pressure and temperature data were used to evaluate whether CO_(2)leakage occurred,we would misjudge the risk of leakage in CCS projects during the TPS period.The causes and conditions of TPS behavior were further studied experimentally.The results show that:(1)TPS behavior is caused by the phase transition energy generated when liquid CO_(2)leaks.(2)The condition for TPS behavior is a small leak aperture(0.2 mm).Only a small leakage rate can make the phase transition energy and pressure change from a dynamic equilibrium,and(3)The compression zone caused by the Bernoulli effect and fault“barrier”could reduce the CO_(2)leakage rate and further promote the occurrence of TPS behavior.This study provides technical and theoretical support for the quantitative characterization of the CO_(2)leakage process in faults of CCS projects.