Visualization of water and surfactant floods in oil-saturated porous media

The flow of water and 1% surfactant solution displacing oil through homogeneous and non-homogeneous porous media have been studied experimentally. The results are shown by taking the photographs of unstable interface at regular interval of time. These photographs suggest that the spreading of the moving interface in lateral direction is more for 1% surfactant solution displacing oil than for water displacing oil and also the interface is more stable for surfactant flooding in the bed. The wavelengths of viscous fingers measured from the experiments are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions for homogeneous bed. The percentage oil recovery at breakthrough is improved considerably with the use of surfactant solution. Effect of flow rate on recovery and breakthrough time has also been studied. Finally, the effect of non-homogeneous packing on the growth of fingers has been studied by creating non-homogeneous medium in an otherwise homogeneous porous medium.     

Experimental investigation of the displacement of viscous fluids from porous media

The results of experimental investigations of different-viscosity and immiscible Newtonian fluid flows through porous media are presented. The investigations were carried out for a Hele-Shaw cell occupied by a porous medium. The basic difference from the previous studies is the observation of the flow after break-through of the displacing fluid into the sink. A series of qualitative and quantitative results which clarify the physics of immiscible fluid flows through capillaries and porous media were obtained in the course of the experimental investigations.__________Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Academii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, 2005, pp. 124–131. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Baryshnikov, Belyaev, and Turuntaev.     

Stability of frontal displacement of fluids in a porous medium in the presence of interphase mass transfer and phase transitions

To preserve the stability of the front relative to small perturbations when one fluid is displaced by another the pressure gradient must decrease on crossing the front in the direction of displacement. Initially, this criterion was established for the piston displacement of fluids [1, 2], and later in the case of two-phase flow of immiscible fluids in porous media for the displacement front corresponding to the saturation jump in the Buckley—Leverett problem [3, 4]. Below it is shown that the same stability criterion remains valid for flows in porous media accompanied by interphase mass transfer and phase transitions [5, 6]. Processes of these kinds are encountered in displacing oil from beds using active physicochemical or thermal methods [7] and usually reduce to pumping into the bed a slug (finite quantity) of reagent after which a displacing agent (water or gas) is forced in. The slug volume may be fairly small, especially when expensive reagents are employed, and, accordingly, in these cases the question of the stability of displacement is one of primary importance. These active processes are characterized by the formation in the displacement zone of multiwave structures which, in the large-scale approximation (i.e., with capillary, diffusion and nonequilibrium effects neglected), correspond to discontinuous distributions of the phase saturations and component concentrations [5–10]. It is shown that the stability condition for a plane front, corresponding to a certain jump, does not depend on the type of jump [11, 12] and for a constant total flow is determined, as in simpler cases, by the relation between the total phase mobilities at the jump. An increase in total flow in the direction of displacement is destabilizing, while a decrease has a stabilizing influence on the stability of the front. Other trends in the investigation of the stability of flows in porous media are reviewed in [13].Translated fron Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 98–103, March–April, 1986.     

An overview on nonlinear porous flow in low permeability porous media

This paper gives an overview on nonlinear porous flow in low permeability porous media, reveals the microscopic mechanisms of flows, and clarifies properties of porous flow fluids. It shows that, deviating from Darcy's linear law, the porous flow characteristics obey a nonlinear law in a low-permeability porous medium, and the viscosity of the porous flow fluid and the permeability values of water and oil are not constants. Based on these characters, a new porous flow model, which can better describe low permeability reservoir, is established. This model can describe various patterns of porous flow, as Darcy's linear law does. All the parameters involved in the model, having definite physical meanings, can be obtained directly from the experiments.     

Enhancing Immiscible Fluid Displacement in Porous Media by Capillary Pressure Discontinuities

Fluid displacement in porous media plays an important role in many industrial applications, including biological filtration, carbon capture and storage, enhanced oil recovery, and fluid transport in fuel cells. The displacement front is unstable, which evolves from smooth into ramified patterns, when the mobility (ratio of permeability to viscosity) of the displacing fluid is larger than that of the displaced one; this phenomenon is called viscous fingering. Viscous fingering increases the residual saturation of the displaced fluid, considerably impairing the efficacy of fluid displacement. It is of practical importance to develop suitable methods to improve fluid displacement. This paper presents an experimental study on applying the discontinuity of capillary pressure to improve immiscible fluid displacement in drainage for which the displacing fluid (air) wets the porous media less preferentially than does the displaced fluid (silicone oil). The concept involves using a heterogeneous packing system, where the upstream region features large pores and small capillary pressure, and the downstream region features small pores and large capillary pressure. The increase in capillary pressure prevents fingering from directly crossing the media interface, thus enhancing the displacement. The experimental apparatus was a linear cell comprising porous media between two parallel plates, and glass beads of 0.6 and 0.125 mm diameter were packed to compose the heterogeneous porous media. The time history of the finger flow was recorded using a video camera. Pressure drops over the model from the inlet to the outlet were measured to compare viscous pressure drops with capillary pressures. The results show that the fluid displacement was increased by the capillary discontinuities. The optimal displacement was determined through linear regression by adjusting the relative length of the large- and small-pore region. The results may assist in the understanding of fingering flow across the boundaries of different grain-sized bands for the gas and oil reservoir management, such as setting the relative location of the injection and production wells. The findings may also serve as a reference for industrial applications such as placing the grain bands in an adequate series to improve the displacement efficacy in biological filtration.     

Hydrodynamic models of the residual oil distribution in water-flood reservoirs

Models of the residual oil saturation distribution are proposed for linear, axisymmetric, and general flows. The steady displacing fluid flow model makes it possible to find equilibrium residual oil saturation distributions corresponding to given flow regimes by treating the porous medium with capillary-trapped oil as a medium with permeability that depends on the displacement conditions. The dynamics of the mobilized globules of the residual oil are excluded from consideration. The simulation results indicate that the residual oil saturation distribution after stimulation of the wash-out zone by means of enhanced oil recovery techniques is generally essentially nonuniform. Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 98–104, May–June, 2000.     

Effect of Wetting on the Dynamics of Drainage in Porous Media

We examine the consequences of the wettability properties on the dynamics of gravity drainage in porous media. The relation between the wetting properties at the pore scale and the macroscale hydrodynamics is studied. Model porous media consisting of hydrophilic and hydrophobic glass beads or sand with well defined wetting properties, are prepared for this study. Gravity drainage experiments with air displacing water (two-phase flow), are performed for different Bond numbers, and using different techniques such as gamma-ray densitometry, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and weight measurements. The dynamics of drainage is found to be different for hydrophilic and hydrophobic porous media in the transition zone (funicular regime). Moreover, for hydrophilic (water-wet) porous media, MRI experiments reveal the importance of drainage through the continuous water film, which leads to an increase of the residual quantity of water in the transition zone with time.     

An experimental study of electrorheological fluid flow through a packed bed of glass beads

This paper shows that pressure drop-flow rate performance of an electrorheological (ER) fluid flowing through a packed bed of glass beads is consistent with a modified Ergun equation for yield stress flow through a packed bed. ER fluids are of scientific and engineering interest due to the sensitivity of their rheological properties on the applied electric field. As far as we know ER fluids have not been studied for flows through porous media. In this work a silica particle–silicone oil suspension is pumped through a rectangular packed bed of glass beads with applied electric fields. The silica particles are observed to form fibrous structures parallel to the electric field that stretch between the beads and extend between the electrodes. The pressure drop-flow rate performance agrees well with the expected performance calculated from a modified Ergun equation for a yield stress fluid flow through the packed bed with the viscosity and yield stress as functions of the applied electric field.     

Characterizing the Role of Shale Geometry and Connate Water Saturation on Performance of Polymer Flooding in Heavy Oil Reservoirs: Experimental Observations and Numerical Simulations

Many heavy oil reservoirs contain discontinuous shales which act as barriers or baffles to flow. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding about how the shale geometrical characteristics affect the reservoir performance, especially during polymer flooding of heavy oils. In this study, a series of polymer injection processes have been performed on five-spot glass micromodels with different shale geometrical characteristics that are initially saturated with the heavy oil. The available geological characteristics from one of the Iranian oilfields were considered for the construction of the flow patterns by using a controlled-laser technology. Oil recoveries as a function of pore volumes of injected fluid were determined from analysis of continuously recorded images during the experiments. We observed a clear bypassing of displacing fluid which results in premature breakthrough of injected fluid due to the shale streaks. Moreover, the results showed a decrease of oil recovery when shales’ orientation, length, spacing, distance of the shale from production well, and density of shales increased. In contrast, an increase of shale discontinuity or distance of the shale streak from the injection well increased oil recovery. The obtained experimental data have also been used for developing and validating a numerical model where good matching performance has been observed between our experimental observations and simulation results. Finally, the role of connate water saturation during polymer flooding in systems containing flow barriers has been illustrated using pore level visualizations. The microscopic observations confirmed that besides the effect of shale streaks as heterogeneity in porous medium, when connate water is present, the trapped water demonstrates another source of disturbance and causes additional perturbations to the displacement interface leading to more irregular fingering patterns especially behind the shale streaks and also causes a reduction of ultimate oil recovery. This study reveals the application of glass micromodel experiments for studying the effects of barriers on oil recovery and flow patterns during EOR processes and also may provide a set of benchmark data for recovery of oil by immiscible polymer flood around discontinuous shales.     

Investigation of Generalized Relative Permeability Coefficients for Electrically Assisted Oil Recovery in Oil Formations

Evaluation of relative permeability coefficients is one of the key steps in reliable simulation of two-phase flow in porous media. An extensive body of work exists on evaluation of these coefficients for two-phase flow under pressure gradient. Oil transport under an applied electrical gradient in porous media is also governed by the principles of two-phase flow, but is less understood. In this paper, relative permeability coefficients under applied electric field are evaluated for a specific case of two- phase fluid flow in water-wet porous media, where the second fluid phase is oil. It is postulated that the viscous drag on the oil phase, exerted by the electro-osmotic flow of the water phase, is responsible for the transport of oil in the absence of a pressure gradient. Reliable prediction of the flow patterns necessitates accurate representation and determination of the relative permeability coefficients under the electrical gradient. The contribution of each phase to the flow is represented mathematically, and the relative permeability coefficients are evaluated through electro-osmotic flow measurements conducted on oil bearing rock cores.     

复杂化学流体在多孔介质中的传质

化学驱油技术已从单一化学剂驱油发展到了复杂化学流体复合体系驱油。化学驱油过程中存在扩散、弥散、吸附、滞留、化学反应等一系列物理化学作用，影响化学剂在多孔介质中的传质过程。碱水驱油实验证明了单一化学剂在多孔介质中存在运移滞后；文中分析了上述物理化学作用，研究了复合体系各种化学剂的运移滞后及滞后差，指出综合吸附作用引起化学剂运移滞后，不同化学剂的运移滞后差导致色谱分离现象。在上述研究的基础上，提出 了吸附对流扩散方程，得到了解析解。并用该解析解处理实验资料，求出了方程中化学剂运移滞后系数和综合扩散系数等相应的参数，可描述和预测复杂化学流体在多孔介质中的传质过程。     

Mathematical model of two-phase fluid nonlinear flow in low-permeability porous media with applications

IntroductionItisasuccessfulexampleinadevelopmentstoryofscienceandtechnologyformechanicsoffluidsinporousmediatocombinewithengineeringtechnology .Fieldsinfluencedbythemechanicsinvolveddevelopmentofoil_gasandgroundwaterresources,controlonseawaterintrusionandsubsidenceandgeologichazards,geotechnicalengineeringandbioengineering ,andairlineindustry[1～ 7].Aproblemonnonlinearflowinlow_permeabilityporousmediaisbutonlyabasiconeindifferentkindsofengineeringfields,butalsooneoffrontlineresearchfieldsofmod…     

聚合物流体渗流机理研究

聚合物流体在多孔介质中渗流的研究是近年来有重大进展的领域。本文介绍从力学与物理方法进行渗流机理研究的思路、主要结果和当前活跃的研究课题。流体的非牛顿性对复杂边界条件下均匀流体力学效应的影响已得到了较好的定量处理;揭示了拉伸流粘弹特性对渗流影响的机理,其定量描述则尚有待努力。进而讨论了石油工程中十分重要的非均一流体渗流的新进展,包括大分子效应与粘性指进效应及其分形描述。对于上述物理效应的综合考虑将使聚合物渗流力学研究进入新的阶段。      

Porous Medium Flow and an Overlying Parallel Flow: PIV Interrogation Area and Overlaps, Interfacial Location, and Depth Ratio Effects

This paper presents an experimental work aimed at studying the effects of particle image velocimetry (PIV) interrogation area and overlaps, location of the interface, as well as depth ratios on the flow at the interface between a model porous medium and an overlying free flow. The porous media were modeled using square arrays of circular rods of diameter and porosity 0.88, filling fraction ranging from 0.47 to 0.75, and depth-to-porous medium pore ratio ranging from 5.75 to 13.69. Using a pressure-driven refractive-index matched viscous fluid, the bulk Reynolds number was kept approximately constant at a regime in which inertia was not a factor. PIV measurements were made across various streamwise-transverse planes of the test section. For the present tests, it was observed that PIV interrogation area (IA) and overlap effects on the interfacial velocities are negligible when the IA sizes in dimensionless units ranged from 0.017 to 0.145 in flow parameters and 0.036 to 0.300 in porous media parameters. Other dimensionless slip parameters are however significantly affected. Interfacial slip parameters of porous media models were found to change by as much as 120 % with change in the interfacial location. The interfacial location sensitivity was also found to be dependent on the direction of deviation, the type of porous medium, and depth ratios. Volume averaged results showed that for flows over models of porous media, the depth-to-porous medium pore ratio effects are more prominent compared with the filling fraction effects, for both two- and three-dimensional porous media.     

Two-phase jet flows in porous media

An analytical model describing the development of the filtration instability of the displacement front of fluids with different viscosities in a porous medium with account for capillary forces is proposed. A set of laboratory experiments on viscous fluid displacement from a porous medium is carried out. To describe the observable flows the model deals with the characteristic profile of the mean water saturation along the flow rather than with the curves of relative phase permeabilities of the fluids. The analytical model developed well describes the results of the laboratory modeling and the data of an actual oil field operation.     

LBM Simulation of Viscous Fingering Phenomenon in Immiscible Displacement of Two Fluids in Porous Media

This article presents the lattice Boltzmann simulation of viscous fingering phenomenon in immiscible displacement of two fluids in porous media. Such phenomenon generally takes place when a less viscous fluid is used to displace a more viscous fluid, and it can be found in many industrial fields. Dimensionless quantities, such as capillary number, Bond number and viscosity ratio between displaced fluid and displacing fluid are introduced to illustrate the effects of capillary force, viscous force, and gravity on the fluid behaviour. The surface wettability, which has an impact on the finger pattern, is also considered in the simulation. The numerical procedure is validated against the experiment about viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell. The displacement efficiency is investigated using the parameter, areal sweep efficiency. The present simulation shows an additional evidence to demonstrate that the lattice Boltzmann method is a useful method for simulating some multiphase flow problems in porous media.     

Application of X-ray CT investigation of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>–brine flow in porous media

A clear understanding of two-phase flows in porous media is important for investigating CO₂ geological storage. In this study, we conducted an experiment of CO₂/brine flow process in porous media under sequestration conditions using X-ray CT technique. The flow properties of relative permeability, porosity heterogeneity, and CO₂ saturation were observed in this experiment. The porous media was packed with glass beads having a diameter of 0.2 mm. The porosity distribution along the flow direction is heterogeneous owing to the diameter and shape of glass beads along the flow direction. There is a relationship between CO₂ saturation and porosity distribution, which changes with different flow rates and fractional flows. The heterogeneity of the porous media influences the distribution of CO₂; moreover, gravity, fractional flows, and flow rates influence CO₂ distribution and saturation. The relative permeability curve was constructed using the steady-state method. The results agreed well with the relative permeability curve simulated using pore-network model.     

A 1D-Averaged Model for Stable and Unstable Miscible Flows in Porous Media with Varying Péclet Numbers and Aspect Ratios

This paper deals with reducing the number of spatial dimensions of the models used to solve stable and unstable miscible flows in saturated and homogeneous porous media. Unstable miscible displacements occur when a fluid displaces another fluid of higher viscosity, with which it can fully mix. Stable flows occur if the displaced fluid is less viscous than the displacing one. First, a 1D-averaged model is identified, capable of accurately describing unstable flows at high Péclet numbers. Second, another 1D-averaged model is determined, capable of accurately predicting miscible displacements at low Péclet numbers. Third, a new model is proposed, for any Péclet number and for both stable and unstable flows, as a combination of the previous two models. This combination involves three parameters whose values depend on the dimensionless numbers of the problem, namely, the viscosity ratio M, the Péclet number P_e, the aspect ratio A, and the dispersion length ratio ε. These parameters are computed for several values of M, P_e, A with ε=1 by matching results from direct 2D simulations, obtained from a numerical model previously validated against experimental data. It is found that a 1D-averaged model combining an extended version of the Todd–Longstaff model and the diffusive term of the 1D-miscible model forms an accurate general model for miscible displacements in homogeneous porous media. This paper also provides a large set of data computed from high-resolution 2D simulations of unstable miscible displacements.