The near field fluid mechanics of SAGD wells

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RGL Reservoir Management (RGL) is an industry leader in sand control and flow distribution technology used in bitumen and heavy oil recovery. Their slotted liner technology is used in the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) technique for the in situ extraction of bitumen. A slotted liner is used to introduce steam into the reservoir to reduce the viscosity of bitumen via heating. The low viscous bitumen can then be produced via a second well. The slotted liner in the production well is used also to minimize sand production while maximizing oil flow. A number of failure mechanisms including corrosion, erosion and scaling are present in both wells and these need to be taken into account when designing a slotted liner. The aim of the project is to provide more detailed understanding and information on the near well (<1m) fluid mechanics of both the injection and production wells. This information will be used to develop a stronger design procedure as well as mitigate failure mechanisms. The research will take to twofold approach. An experimental investigation using both model fluids/conditions and real fluids/conditions will elucidate the flow phenomenon present and provide basic and detailed data on the flow field on a number of different conditions. Numerical models using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) will be developed using the validation data from the experiments to provide further insight into this flow field. These will then be used as part of an optimization process to provide explicit information on design directions for RGL slotted liner technology.