Colloidally Induced Release of Fines in Porous Media

The release of fines from a pore surface is the first step in the phenomenon of migration of fines in porous media. A comprehensive understanding of this release process is necessary (1) to design treatments either to prevent or to induce/trigger the migration of fines, and (2) to analyze and develop a mathematical model to gain insights into the phenomenon. In general, two major types of forces are responsible for the release of fines: colloidal and hydrodynamic. This chapter focuses on colloidally induced release while the next chapter focuses on hydrodynamically induced release.