Measurement of Fluid Flow in Pipe and Porous Media by High-Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The objective of this study is to understand the process of fluid flow in pipe and porous media with different pore structures.High-resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique was used to visualize the pore structure and measure fluid flow.The porous media was formed by packed bed of glass beads.Flow measurement was carried out by a modified spin echo sequence.The results show that the velocity distribution in pipe is annular and the linear relation between MRI velocity and actual velocity is found in pipe flow measurement.The flow distribution in porous media is rather heterogeneous,and it is consistent with heterogeneous pore structure.The flow through pores with the high volume flow rate is determined largely by geometrical effects such as pore size and cross-sectional area.