Fractional-Flow Theory for Non-Newtonian Surfactant-Alternating-Gas Foam Processes

Transport in Porous Media - Foam can improve sweep efficiency in gas-injection-enhanced oil recovery. Surfactant-alternating-gas (SAG) is a favored method of foam injection. Laboratory data...     

Foam Mobility in Heterogeneous Porous Media

It is shown experimentally that in situ generation of foam is an effective method for achieving gas mobility control and diverting injected fluid to low permeability strata within heterogeneous porous media. The experimental system is composed of a 0.395 porosity, 5.35 µm² synthetic sandstone and a 0.244 porosity, 0.686 µm² natural sandstone. The cores are arranged in parallel and communicate through common injection and production conditions. Nitrogen is the gas phase and alpha-olefin sulfonate (AOS 1416) in brine is the foamer. Three types of experiments were conducted. First, gas alone was injected into the system after presaturation with the foamer solution. Second, gas and foamer solution were coinjected at an overall gas fraction of 90% into cores presaturated with surfactant. Each core accepted a portion of the injected gas and liquid according to the mobility within the core. Lastly, gas and foamer solution were coinjected into the individual, isolated porous media in order to establish baseline behavior. The results are striking. It is possible to achieve total diversion of gas injection to the low permeability medium in some cases. The results also confirm previous predictions that foamed gas can be more mobile in lower permeability porous media.     

Foam Generation Hysteresis in Porous Media: Experiments and New Insights

Foam application in subsurface processes including environmental remediation, geological carbon-sequestration, and gas-injection enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has the potential to enhance contamination remediation, secure \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) storage, and improve oil recovery, respectively. Nanoparticles are a promising alternative to surfactants in creating foam in harsh environments. We conducted \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\)-in-brine foam generation experiments in Boise sandstones with surface-treated silica nanoparticle in high-salinity conditions. All the experiments were conducted at the fixed \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) volume fraction and fixed flow rate which changed in steps. The steady-state foam apparent viscosity was measured as a function of injection velocity. The foam flowing through the cores showed higher apparent viscosity as the flow rate increased from low to medium and high velocities. At very high velocities, once foam bubbles were finely textured, the foam apparent viscosity was governed by foam rheology rather than foam creation. A noticeable hysteresis occurred when the flow velocity was initially increased and then decreased, implying multiple (coarse and strong) foam states at the same superficial velocity. A normalized generation function was combined with CMG-STARS foam model to cover full spectrum of foam behavior in the experiments. The new model successfully captures foam generation and hysteresis trends in presented experiments in this study and data from the literature. The results indicate once foam is generated in porous media, it is possible to maintain strong foam at low injection rates. This makes foam more feasible in field applications where foam generation is limited by high injection rates that may only exist near the injection well.     

A Pore Scale Study of Non-Newtonian Effect on Foam Propagation in Porous Media

CO₂ injection is one of the most promising techniques to enhance oil recovery. However, an unfavorable mobility ratio, reservoir heterogeneity and gravity segregation can reduce the macroscopic sweep efficiency. In situ foaming of injected CO₂ is the method that has the most potential for improving sweep efficiency based on controlling CO₂ mobility. This study investigates the foaming behavior of N,N,N′-trimethyl-N′-tallow-1,3-diaminopropane (DTTM) surfactant with CO₂ in a transparent porous microflow model with natural rock pore structures. It focuses on the effect of the salinity induced non-Newtonian behavior of DTTM solution on foam propagation. The performance of foams stabilized by 0.5 wt% DTTM solution over the viscosity range from 0.71 (at 5 wt% NaCl) to 41 cp (at 20 wt% NaCl) was compared with conventional polymer-enhanced foams whose liquid phase contained a commonly used foaming surfactant, C15–18 Internal Olefin Sulfonate (C15–18 IOS) and a hydrolyzed polyacrylamide. Such comparisons have also provided insight into the respective impacts of liquid phase viscosification by worm-like surfactant micelles and polymer on foam texture associated with its rheological characteristics. It was found that at low aqueous phase viscosity (injection liquid viscosity of 0.71 cp) the maximum achievable viscosity of DDTM foam was around 1000 cp, which was 80 times IOS stabilized foam. The interfacial tension of DTTM was higher than that of IOS, resulting coarser foam texture and higher individual lamella resistance. An increase in DTTM solution viscosity by a factor of 33 decreased foam generation and viscosity for gas injection. This was not observed for the simultaneous injection of gas and DTTM solution. Overall, the effect of liquid phase viscosity on transient foam behavior during gas injection is similar for both DTTM and IOS regardless of the difference in the nature of viscosifying agents (WLM vs 3330 s polymer). An increase in gas injection pressure without liquid injection delayed foam propagation and reduced the magnitude of foam viscosity. The results from this study indicated that DTTM surfactant is an important alternative to commercially available polymers that have been used to enhance foam performance in porous media. This particular surfactant type also overcomes several disadvantages of polymers such as limited temperature and salinity tolerance, shear degradation, and filtering in low permeability formations.

     

Correlation Between Foam Flow Structure in Porous Media and Surfactant Formulation Properties

Transport in Porous Media - The optimization of foam injection in porous media for enhanced oil recovery or soil remediation requires a large screening of surfactant formulations. Tests of foam...     

Stability Analysis of Uniform Equilibrium Foam States for EOR Processes

The use of foam for mobility control is a promising mean to improve sweep efficiency in EOR. Experimental studies discovered that foam exhibits three different states (weak foam, intermediate foam, and strong foam). The intermediate-foam state is found to be unstable in the lab whereas the weak- and strong-foam states are stable. The model of Kam (Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp 318(1–3): 62–77, 2008) is the only mechanistic foam model that can fit a variety of steady-state experimental data including multiple steady states. This model is modified from a previous mechanistic foam model to resolve the intrinsic instability of the strong-foam state. Simple finite-difference simulations have found that an arbitrary perturbation grows for the unstable intermediate foam but diminishes for the strong- and weak-foam states. The issue of the stability of foam states, especially the strong-foam state, is a serious concern in application of foam in EOR. Instabilities may rule out one or more states and consequently have considerable effect on reservoir sweep efficiency and injection pressure. Here, for the first time the stability of the various equilibrium foam states is investigated by an analytical stability-analysis method together with numerical simulations. We demonstrate the instability of most intermediate states, consistent with the laboratory observations. However, our analysis reveals an instability of the strong-foam state. We show that the diffusion, whether introduced artificially by the finite-difference scheme or representing physical dispersion, damps this instability. We obtain good agreement with finite-element simulations with and without additional diffusion. We also prove that all states are unconditionally stable for a local-equilibrium-foam model.     

泡沫铝-复合泡沫冲击韧度及黏弹性分析

泡沫铝-复合泡沫互穿相复合材料是一种新型的结构功能一体化材料,在机械、交通、建筑等领域具有重要的应用前景。本文制备了纯泡沫铝及空心玻璃微珠四种体积分数的泡沫铝-复合泡沫试件,通过摆锤冲击实验研究了其冲击韧度,讨论了其断口形貌与结构性能的关系,通过单轴压缩的应力松弛实验研究其黏弹性性能。研究表明：空心玻璃微珠体积分数为10%的泡沫铝-复合泡沫试件的冲击韧度最大,随后其冲击韧度随空心玻璃微珠体积分数的增加而减小;当空心玻璃微珠体积分数较小时,泡沫铝的结构形貌决定了冲击断口的形貌,但当其体积分数达到30%时,空心玻璃微珠的破坏是形成断口形貌的主要原因;复合材料的黏弹性性能随着玻璃微珠体积分数的增加而增大。     

泡沫塑料中冲击波的传播

在现有 Ｓ Ｈ Ｐ Ｂ技术的基础上,将泡沫塑料作为子弹撞击铝杆,利用铝杆上的应变片测得的应力波形及泡沫塑料的应力应变曲线,合理地分析了冲击波在泡沫塑料中的传播特性,并提出了泡沫塑料中的破坏波（压实波）概念。     

Foam Drainage in Porous Media

In this paper we present a simple analysis of liquid drainage in foams confined in porous media. First we derive the equation for the evolution of the liquid saturation using general mass and momentum conservation arguments and phenomenological relations between the transport parameters and liquid saturation. We find an unusual foam drainage equation in which the determinant terms express the competition between the external force field, represented here by the gravity field, and capillary pressure gradient. We present analytical solutions of the drainage equation in three cases: (a) gravity forces are dominant over capillary forces, (b) capillary forces are dominant over gravity forces, and (c) capillary and gravity forces are comparable in order of magnitude.     

泡沫铝的单向力学行为

本文对不同孔径的开孔泡沫铝材料的单向拉伸性能和单向压缩性能进行了研究,揭示了泡沫铝材料的变形机理,并且发现相对密度不是确定材料力学属性的唯一参数,孔径大小对材料的力学性能也有一定的影响。基于实验数据,我们讨论了材料的宏观力学性能和微观结构的联系,并利用Ramberg-Osgood模型描述了材料的单轴拉伸一维应力应变关系。     

Trapped Gas Fraction During Steady-State Foam Flow

Trapped or stationary gas contributes significantly to the extent of gas mobility reduction for aqueous foams. Simultaneous measurements of effluent bubble sizes and trapped gas saturation in sandstone are reported for the first time. Roughly 80% of the gas saturation in an aqueous foam is stationary at steady state in this permeable porous medium. The experiments show that as gas velocity increases, the trapped gas fraction decreases. Similarly, as injected gas–liquid ratio increases, the trapped gas fraction decreases. Hence, the absolute velocities of gas and aqueous surfactant solution are fundamental to foamed-gas mobility reduction for they help determine in situ foam texture. Effluent foam bubbles range in size from 60 to 120 μm in diameter. The smaller the effluent bubble, the smaller is the fraction of mobile gas. Scaling laws from network percolation theory are used to engender a mechanistic understanding of the various parameters identified as important in the experimental program. The closed form approimation predicts that the trapped gas fraction is a weak function of pressure gradient, foam-bubble size, and the permeability of the porous medium. Moreover, the theory reproduces well the newly obtained experimental data.     

Self-Similar Solutions for the Foam Drainage Equation

We provide travelling wave solutions of the equation for foam drainage in porous media, taking into account an additional symmetry requirement. The method of solution used is reminescent of the approach developed to treat the Rapoport–Leas equation for two-phase flow. Numerical solutions are also presented and compared to the analytical ones.     

Foam Self-Clarification Phenomenon: An Experimental Investigation

This paper is focused on the capabilities of gas–liquid foams to attenuate acoustic waves. It is postulated that the sound attenuation phenomenon in foams is largely governed by the hydrodynamic resistance of the Plateau-Gibbs channels (PGC) to the flow of liquid through them. It is shown that the addition of solid particles to gas–liquid foams has opposite effects depending on the concentration of the added solid particles. As long as the concentration of the added solid particles is smaller than a certain critical value the sound attenuation coefficient increases and as a result in the sound velocity decreases. However, if the concentration of the added solid particles becomes larger than this critical value the attenuation coefficient decreases and the sound velocity increases. When the concentration of the solid particles reaches some critical value, the particles block the Plateau-Gibbs channels and stop the filtration. As a result the attenuation coefficient of the sound wave decreases while the sound velocity, in such three-phase foams, increases. The point at which the sound wave stops attenuating and its velocity starts to increase is known as the point of self-clarification. Based on this postulate and on the results of our preliminary tests the present study provides a plausible explanation to the above-mentioned contradicting effect, and the self- clarification phenomenon.     

Equivalence Between Semi-empirical and Population-Balance Foam Models

Effective material parameters for diffusion and elastic deformation are calculated for porous materials using a continuum theory-based superposition procedure. The theory that is limited to two-dimensional cases, requires that the pores are sufficiently sparse. The method leads to simple manual calculations that can be performed by, e.g. hospital staff at clinical diagnoses of bone deceases that involve increasing levels of porosity. An advantage is that the result relates to the bone material permeability and stiffness instead of merely pore densities. The procedure uses precalculated pore shape factors and exact size scaling. The remaining calculations do not require any knowledge of the underlying field methods that are used to compute the shape factors. The paper establishes the upper limit for the pore densities that are sufficiently sparse. A cross section of bovine bone is taken as an example. The superposition procedure is evaluated against a full scale finite element calculation. The study compares the pore induced change of the diffusion coefficient and elastic modulus. The predictions differ between superposition and full scale calculations with 0.3% points when pore contribution to the diffusion constant is 3–7%, and 0.7% points when the pore contribution to the modulus of elasticity is 4.5–5%. It is uncertain if the error is in the superposition method, which is exact for small pore densities, while the full scale finite model is not.     

关于泡沫塑料各向异性模型的修正

本文研究了开孔泡沫塑料的力学各向异性问题。在已有模型的基础上，结合扫描电镜的分析结果提出了对Ｋａｎａｋｋａｎａｔ模型和Ｈｕｂｅｒ－Ｇｉｂｓｏｎ模型的修正。这种修正反映了开孔泡沫塑料支柱的横向尺寸比对泡沫塑料各向异性性质的影响     

Blast Wave Mitigation by a Particulate Foam Barrier

Blast waves mitigate in foam due to various mechanisms, whose contribution to the final result is not fully understood yet. Actually, blast waves can destroy the foam barrier that is usually prone to decay and thus subsides with time. Fortunately, different time scales allow separating between these processes. The foam shattering, for example, could be completed within several milliseconds, while the foam decay lasts minutes and even hours. Recently, an increasing interest in this area has emerged, because particle-laden foams are much more stable and thus, could be applied for blast wave protection. To explore the full advantage of these new foams, the relationship between the micro-properties of the foam structure and the blast wave mitigation has to be clarified. In order to specify this relationship, little has been done. Information available in the literature on this subject clearly shows that during the test, the foam structure could be changed in a wide range, which is not usually controlled. This complicates the analysis of the occurring processes and ensures that the new factor involved in the studied problem has to be tested one by one, after the result of the previous step is well understood. To follow this strategy, this study continues our previous investigation (Britan et al in Colloid Surf A Physicochem Eng Aspects 309:137–150, 2007; Colloid Surf A Physicochem Eng Aspects 344:15–23, 2009; 2011), while mainly focusing on a single new factor, namely blast-shaped profile. To separate out the effect of the foam decay, which was discussed elsewhere (Britan et al in 2011), a special effort has been spent to ensure that the tested foam is homogeneous over its height. To exclude the bubble shattering, preference was given to weak impact conditions (Mach number of the shock generated inside the shock tube was about M _S  = 1.05). Under these circumstances, the blast wave mitigation inside the tested foam barrier solely depended on the concentration of the solid additives.     

A Simple Model for a Fluid-Filled Open-Cell Foam

A simple microstructure model is used to describe a fluid-filled open-cell foam. In the simplest case it consists of parallel elastic plates with gaps between them, which are filled with a Newtonian fluid. We assume that the load applied to this model material is uniaxial. The constitutive equation is formulated with the pressure of the fluid as an inner variable. The model yields an evolutional equation for the fluid pressure which itself is a field equation, that is a partial differential equation in time and space coordinates. This differential equation is solved for an instantaneously applied constant load and for a harmonically oscillating load. The solution of the differential equation, in combination with the constitutive equation leads to a relation between mean applied load and global strain of the test specimen. Finally, we obtain the creep compliance and the complex modulus of the foam material, respectively. The influence of different geometries of the foam and of different material behaviour of the matrix and fluid on the creep compliance and the complex modulus is discussed.     

Miscible and Immiscible Foam Injection for Mobility Control and EOR in Fractured Oil-Wet Carbonate Rocks

Foam injection is a proven enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique for heterogeneous reservoirs, but is less studied for EOR in fractured systems. We experimentally investigated tertiary \(\text {CO}_{2}\) injections, and \(\text {N}_{2}\) - and \(\text {CO}_{2}\) -foam injections for enhanced oil recovery in fractured, oil-wet limestone core plugs. Miscible \(\text {CO}_{2}\) and \(\text {CO}_{2}\) -foam was compared with immiscible \(\text {CO}_{2}\) - and \(\text {N}_{2}\) -foam as tertiary recovery techniques, subsequent to waterfloods, in fractured rocks with different wettability preferences. At water-wet conditions waterfloods produced approximately 40 % OOIP, by spontaneous imbibition. Waterflood oil recovery at oil-wet conditions was below 20 % OOIP, due to suppressed imbibition where water predominantly flowed through the fractures, unable to mobilize the oil trapped in the matrix. Tertiary, supercritical \(\text {CO}_{2}\) -mobilized oil trapped in the matrix, particularly at weakly oil-wet conditions, by diffusion. Recovery by diffusion was high due to small core samples, high initial oil saturation and a continuous oil phase at oil-wet conditions. Both immiscible \(\text {CO}_{2}\) - and \(\text {N}_{2}\) -foams and miscible, supercritical \(\text {CO}_{2}\) -foam demonstrated high ultimate oil recoveries, but immiscible foam was less efficient (30 pore volumes injected) compared to miscible foam (2 pore volumes injected) to reach ultimate recovery. This is explained by the capillary threshold pressure preventing the injected \(\text {N}_{2}\) gas from entering the matrix, verified by computed X-ray tomography, and the mobilized oil was displaced by the aqueous surfactant in the foam. At miscible conditions, there exists no capillary entry pressure between the oil-saturated matrix and the injected \(\text {CO}_{2}\) , allowing foam to invade the matrix for efficient oil recovery.     

Foam Generation,Propagation and Stability in Porous Medium

Transport in Porous Media - There have been several foam field applications in recent years. Foam treatments targeting gas mobility control in injectors as well as gas blocking in production wells...