Investigation of foam flow in a 3D printed porous medium in the presence of oil
Investigation of foam flow in a 3D printed porous medium in the presence of oil
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jcis.2016.12.015
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发表时间：
2017-03-15
影响因子：
9.9
通讯作者：
Shokri, Nima
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Osei-Bonsu, Kofi;Grassia, Paul;Shokri, Nima
泡沫在多孔介质中具有驱替流体的巨大潜力，适用于各种地下作业，如提高石油采收率和土壤修复。泡沫在这些工艺中的应用是因为其独特的能力，通过增加其有效粘度来降低气体的流动性，并将天然气转移到多孔介质中未波及的低渗透层。石油在多孔介质中的存在不利于泡沫的稳定性，这可能会影响其作为驱替液的成功。在本工作中，我们利用3D打印技术制造的特性良好的多孔介质进行了一系列系统的实验，以评估不同边界条件下石油对泡沫驱油动力学的影响。考察了油的种类、泡沫质量和泡沫流量对泡沫性能的影响。我们的结果表明，与重油相比，在多孔介质中存在轻质油时，稳定泡沫的产生要延迟。此外，还观察到，石油捕获的动力学取决于泡沫在有油存在时的稳定性。此外，在石油存在下，气体含量高的泡沫似乎不太稳定，降低了其回收效率。驱替过程中泡沫-油动态的孔隙尺度检测表明，随着泡沫质量的增加，形成了不太稳定的前锋，导致原油采收率降低。这项研究扩展了对多孔介质中泡沫驱油的物理理解，并为影响这一过程的参数提供了新的物理见解。(C)爱思唯尔公司出版的2016年。
Foams demonstrate great potential for displacing fluids in porous media which is applicable to a variety of subsurface operations such as the enhanced oil recovery and soil remediation. The application of foam in these processes is due to its unique ability to reduce gas mobility by increasing its effective viscosity and to divert gas to un-swept low permeability zones in porous media. The presence of oil in porous media is detrimental to the stability of foams which can influence its success as a displacing fluid. In the present work, we have conducted a systematic series of experiments using a well-characterised porous medium manufactured by 3D printing technique to evaluate the influence of oil on the dynamics of foam displacement under different boundary conditions. The effects of the type of oil, foam quality and foam flow rate were investigated. Our results reveal that generation of stable foam is delayed in the presence of light oil in the porous medium compared to heavy oil. Additionally, it was observed that the dynamics of oil entrapment was dictated by the stability of foam in the presence of oil. Furthermore, foams with high gas fraction appeared to be less stable in the presence of oil lowering its recovery efficiency. Pore-scale inspection of foam-oil dynamics during displacement revealed formation of a less stable front as the foam quality increased, leading to less oil recovery. This study extends the physical understanding of oil displacement by foam in porous media and provides new physical insights regarding the parameters influencing this process. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.