An Upscaling–Static-Downscaling Scheme for Simulation of Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

We investigate whether upscaling errors for EOR simulation can be reduced by an upscaling–static-downscaling method where the scales of simulation for the pressure and saturation/concentration switch between coarse simulation model and fine geological model. We apply a static downscaling that has been previously shown to be reliable for water flooding. We use the same algorithm of static downscaling for EOR processes that have been used for water flooding. Different EOR processes are considered: polymer, surfactant and thermal. This range of flooding processes ensures that we are examining more physically complicated systems than water flooding. For these processes, one major difference from water flooding is existence of a secondary front. The effective capturing of this front is a criterion of accuracy for upscaling because, for this front, the coupling of dispersion with the fractional flow creates excessive smearing. A scheme for numerical dispersion control is implemented to both upscaled and downscaled models to determine and reduce the sensitivity to dispersion errors.     

EM Heating-Stimulated Water Flooding for Medium–Heavy Oil Recovery

We report a study of heavy oil recovery by combined water flooding and electromagnetic (EM) heating at a frequency of 2.45 GHz used in domestic microwave ovens. A mathematical model describing this process was developed. Model equations were solved, and the solution is presented in an integral form for the one-dimensional case. Experiments consisting of water injection into Bentheimer sandstone cores, either fully water saturated or containing a model heavy oil, were also conducted, with and without EM heating. Model prediction was found to be in rather good agreement with experiments. EM energy was efficiently absorbed by water and, under dynamic conditions, was transported deep into the porous medium. The amount of EM energy absorbed increases with water saturation. Oil recovery by water flooding combined with EM heating was up to \(37.0\%\) larger than for cold water flooding. These observations indicate that EM heating induces an overall improvement in the mobility ratio between the displacing water and the displaced heavy oil.     

Transport of Polymer Particles in Oil–Water Flow in Porous Media: Enhancing Oil Recovery

Transport in Porous Media - 3D printing with powders offers the most analogous method to the natural way in which clastic reservoir rocks are formed, resulting in pore network textures and...     

A Benchmark Solution for Infiltration and Adsorption of Polluted Water Into Unsaturated–Saturated Porous Media

We discuss the numerical modeling of the infiltration of contaminated water into unsaturated porous media. A system with contaminant transport, dispersion, and adsorption is considered. The mathematical model for unsaturated flow is based on Richards nonlinear and degenerate equation. Nonlinear adsorption is represented by adsorption isotherms and kinetic rates. An accurate numerical method is constructed in 1D which can be a good candidate for the solution of inverse problems to determine model parameters in the adsorption part of the model. Our numerical solution is based on the method of lines (MOL method) where space discretization leads to the corresponding system of ODEs. We substantially use the numerical modeling of interfaces, separating fully saturated, partially saturated, and dry zones in the underground. Finally, in a series of numerical experiments and in comparisons with HYDRUS (?imunek et al., The HYDRUS-1D software package for simulating the one-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably/saturated media, version 2.0, Rep. IGWMC-TPS-70, 202 pp., Int. Groundwater Model. Cent., Colo. Sch of Mines, Golden, Colo), we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.     

An Experimental Study of the Influence of Interfacial Tension on Water–Oil Two-Phase Relative Permeability

Adding surfactant into the displacing aqueous phase during surfactant-enhanced aquifer remediation of NAPL contamination and in chemical flooding oil recovery significantly changes interfacial tension (IFT) (σ) on water–oil interfaces within porous media. The change in IFT may have a large impact on relative permeability for the two-phase flow system. In most subsurface flow investigations, however, the influence of IFT on relative permeability has been ignored. In this article, we present an experimental study of two-phase relative- permeability behavior in the low and more realistic ranges of IFT for water–oil systems. The experimental work overcomes the limitations of the existing laboratory measurements of relative permeability (which are applicable only for high ranges of IFT (e.g., σ > 10⁻² mN/m). In particular, we have (1) developed an improved steady-state method of measuring complete water–oil relative permeability curves; (2) proven that a certain critical range of IFT exists such that IFT has little impact on relative permeability for σ greater than this range, while within the range, relative permeabilities to both water and oil phases will increase with decreasing IFT; and (3) shown that a functional correlation exists between water–oil two-phase relative permeability and IFT. In addition, this work presents such correlation formula between water–oil two-phase relative permeability and IFT. The experimental results and proposed conceptual models will be useful for quantitative studies of surfactant-enhanced aquifer remediation and chemical flooding operations in reservoirs.     

Enhanced isolation performance of a high-static–low-dynamic stiffness isolator with geometric nonlinear damping

Nonlinear Dynamics - To enhance the low-frequency vibration isolation performance of the high-static–low-dynamic stiffness (HSLDS) isolator, a novel design of the geometric nonlinear damping...     

Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a Tool for the Study of Foamy Oil Behavior for an Extra‐Heavy Crude Oil. T2 /Viscosity Correlation with Respect to Pressure

The purpose of this work is to present the results of the phase behavior study for a live heavy oil during a pressure depletion process using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a tool to characterize foamy oil phenomena. The experiments were carried out in the pressure range of 13.1 to 1.4MPa. Signal intensity images were obtained at each pressure and with respect to time, that is, approximately for a total time of 3h after each pressure change. It is possible to see a variation in intensity across the sample. These changes can be associated with changes in mobility as well as segregation of the oil. It was also possible to observe that what we trust is the formation of gas channels at the last two pressure values, as it comes out of solution. A correlation between the transverse relaxation time T2 and temperature was established with the aim of producing one between T2 and viscosity. In this way viscosity maps for the live oil were obtained as a function of pressure and time. It was observed that above the bubble point, the viscosity maps varied from low to high to low with respect to time for the same pressure. Below the bubble point the situation is reverse. The viscosity map changes from high to low to high with respect to time for the same pressure. The study shows the potential use of MRI to follow viscosity changes during pressure depletion test in a PVT MRI cell.     

Molecular Dynamics Study on the Effects of Metal Cations on Microscale Interfacial Properties of Oil–Water-Surfactant System

Transport in Porous Media - Fine-migration-induced permeability damage in geological reservoirs is a critical problem in several environmental and energy operations. This study presents a novel...     

Capillarity-Driven Oil Flow in Nanopores: Darcy Scale Analysis of Lucas–Washburn Imbibition Dynamics

Transport in Porous Media - We present gravimetrical and optical imaging experiments on the capillarity-driven imbibition of silicone oils in monolithic silica glasses traversed by 3D networks of...     

Radial Oil–Water Transport Toward an Extraction Well

We apply steady-state capillary-controlled upscaling in heterogeneous environments. A phase may fail to form a connected path across a given domain at capillary equilibrium. Moreover, even if a continuous saturation path exists, some regions of the domain may produce disconnected clusters that do not contribute to the overall connectivity of the system. In such cases, conventional upscaling processes might not be accurate since identification and removal of these isolated clusters are extremely important to the global connectivity of the system and the stability of the numerical solvers. In this study, we address the impact of percolation during capillary-controlled displacements in heterogeneous porous media and present a comprehensive investigation using random absolute permeability fields, for water-wet, oil-wet and mixed-wet systems, where J-function scaling is used to relate capillary pressure, porosity and absolute permeabilities in each grid cell. Important information is revealed about the average connectivity of the phases and trapping at the Darcy scale due to capillary forces. We show that in oil-wet and mixed-wet media, large-scale trapping of oil controlled by variations in local capillary pressure may be more significant than the local trapping, controlled by pore-scale displacement.     

Group Properties of 2–Submodels for the Evolutionary Class of Gas–Dynamic Equations

Invariant 2–submodels (submodels with two independent variables) of the evolutionary class are considered for the equations of gas dynamics with an equation of state of general form. Group analysis of these submodels is performed. Allowable operators and transformations of equivalence are indicated, and group classification is performed.     

Fundamental Study of Pore Morphology Effect in Low Tension Polymer Flooding or Polymer–Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding

Low Tension Polymer Flooding or Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding is generally deployed as a method to produce additional oil trapped in oil reservoirs after waterflooding. Fundamental study of microscopic mechanisms and pore-level phenomena in Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding needs more investigation. Of particular concern and interest is to probe into and document the effect of pore morphology and structure on microscopic phenomena occurring at pore level. No previous works on the effect of pore morphology in Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding has been reported in the literature. In this study, one-quarter five-spot glass micromodels were deployed to examine the effect of porous media morphology and structure on microscopic mechanisms as well as macroscopic behavior of Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding. Four types of pore morphologies were employed to study this factor. Results show that the pore geometric properties in a porous medium will dictate the degree of displacement front instability, capillary imbalance, viscous fingering, wetting characteristics and its distribution, and finally magnitude of ultimate oil recovery. We also found that the formation of flow scheme is dramatically influenced by the pre-designed injection scheme.     

Three views of viscoelasticity for Cox–Merz materials

A slight rearrangement of the classical Cox and Merz rule suggests that the shear stress value of steady shear flow, , and complex modulus value of small amplitude oscillatory shear, G^∗(ω) = (G^′2 + G^″2)^1/2, are equivalent in many respects. Small changes of material structure, which express themselves most sensitively in the steady shear stress, τ, show equally pronounced in linear viscoelastic data when plotting these with G^∗ as one of the variables. An example is given to demonstrate this phenomenon: viscosity data that cover about three decades in frequency get stretched out over about nine decades in G^∗ while maintaining steep gradients in a transition region. This suggests a more effective way of exploiting the Cox–Merz rule when it is valid and exploring reasons for lack of validity when it is not. The τ −G^∗ equivalence could also further the understanding of the steady shear normal stress function as proposed by Laun.     

Role of the Pressure for Validity of the Energy Equality for Solutions of the Navier–Stokes Equation

We prove that a weak solution of the Navier–Stokes system satisfies the energy equality if the associated pressure is locally square integrable. A similar statement is shown to hold for the Euler system.     

Existence of Weak Solutions for Unsteady Motions of Herschel–Bulkley Fluids

The equations for unsteady flows of Herschel–Bulkley fluids are considered and the existence of a weak solution is proved in a cylinder Q _T ?=?Ω?×?(0, T), where ${\Omega\subset {\mathbb{R}}^n}$ denotes a bounded open set. The result is obtained with the help of the Lipschitz truncation method.     

Bounded states for breathers–soliton and breathers of sine–Gordon equation

Nonlinear Dynamics - The Wronskian solutions to the sine–Gordon (sG) equation that can provide interaction of different kinds of solutions are revisited. And a novel expression of N-soliton...