Influence of capillary pressure,adsorption and dispersion on chemical flood transport phenomena

This is the second of two joint papers which study the influence of several physical properties on the transport phenomena in chemical flooding. To that aim, we use a previously reported ternary two-phase model into which representative physical properties have been incorporated as concentration-dependent functions. Physical properties such as phase behavior, interfacial tensions, residual saturations, relative permeabilities, phase viscosities and wettability have been analyzed in the first paper.

In this paper, we discuss the influence of capillary pressure, adsorption of the chemical component onto the rock and dispersion. Although arising from different phenomenological sources, these transport mechanisms show some similar effects on concentration profiles and on oil recovery. They are studied for systems with different phase behavior. A numerical analysis is also presented in order to determine the relevance of the number of grid blocks taken in the discretization of the differential equations. This numerical analysis provides useful guidelines for the selection of the appropriate numerical grid in each type of displacement.