Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media
Oil recovery, including conventional and viscous oil, can be improved significantly by flooding with polymer solutions. This chemical flooding method can increase oil production, and it can improve the macrodisplacement efficiency and microsweep efficiencies. In this study, we establish physical mod...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2017-01-01
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| Series: | Geofluids |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/8763951 |
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| _version_ | 1832560256159318016 |
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| author | Huiying Zhong Weidong Zhang Hongjun Yin Haoyang Liu |
| author_facet | Huiying Zhong Weidong Zhang Hongjun Yin Haoyang Liu |
| author_sort | Huiying Zhong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Oil recovery, including conventional and viscous oil, can be improved significantly by flooding with polymer solutions. This chemical flooding method can increase oil production, and it can improve the macrodisplacement efficiency and microsweep efficiencies. In this study, we establish physical models that include the dead-end and complex models based on the pore-network pattern etched into glass, using the snappyHexMesh solver in OpenFOAM. These models capture the complexity and topology of porous media geometry. We establish a mathematical model for transient flows of viscoelastic polymers using computational fluid dynamics simulations, and we study the distributions of pressure and velocity for different elasticity scenarios and different flooding process. The results demonstrate that the pressure difference increases as the relaxation time decreases, before the flow reaches its steady state. For a steady flow, elasticity can give rise to an additional pressure difference, which increases with increasing elasticity. Thus, the characteristics of pressure difference vary before and after the flow becomes steady; this phenomenon is very important. Velocity contours become more widely spaced with elasticity increase. This suggests that elasticity of the polymer solutions contributes to the microsweep efficiency. The results of the study provide the necessary theoretical foundation for laboratory experiments and development of methods for polymer flooding and can be helpful for the design and selection of polymers for polymer flooding. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8c2b703b6e734647b5721ae400ac8a64 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1468-8115 1468-8123 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geofluids |
| spelling | doaj-art-8c2b703b6e734647b5721ae400ac8a642025-02-03T01:28:06ZengWileyGeofluids1468-81151468-81232017-01-01201710.1155/2017/87639518763951Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous MediaHuiying Zhong0Weidong Zhang1Hongjun Yin2Haoyang Liu3Key Laboratory for Enhanced Oil & Gas Recovery of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, ChinaKey Laboratory for Enhanced Oil & Gas Recovery of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, ChinaKey Laboratory for Enhanced Oil & Gas Recovery of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, ChinaPetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Beijing 100083, ChinaOil recovery, including conventional and viscous oil, can be improved significantly by flooding with polymer solutions. This chemical flooding method can increase oil production, and it can improve the macrodisplacement efficiency and microsweep efficiencies. In this study, we establish physical models that include the dead-end and complex models based on the pore-network pattern etched into glass, using the snappyHexMesh solver in OpenFOAM. These models capture the complexity and topology of porous media geometry. We establish a mathematical model for transient flows of viscoelastic polymers using computational fluid dynamics simulations, and we study the distributions of pressure and velocity for different elasticity scenarios and different flooding process. The results demonstrate that the pressure difference increases as the relaxation time decreases, before the flow reaches its steady state. For a steady flow, elasticity can give rise to an additional pressure difference, which increases with increasing elasticity. Thus, the characteristics of pressure difference vary before and after the flow becomes steady; this phenomenon is very important. Velocity contours become more widely spaced with elasticity increase. This suggests that elasticity of the polymer solutions contributes to the microsweep efficiency. The results of the study provide the necessary theoretical foundation for laboratory experiments and development of methods for polymer flooding and can be helpful for the design and selection of polymers for polymer flooding.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/8763951 |
| spellingShingle | Huiying Zhong Weidong Zhang Hongjun Yin Haoyang Liu Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media Geofluids |
| title | Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media |
| title_full | Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media |
| title_fullStr | Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media |
| title_short | Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media |
| title_sort | study on mechanism of viscoelastic polymer transient flow in porous media |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/8763951 |
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