Pore-Scale Simulation of Particle Flooding for Enhancing Oil Recovery

Xiangbin Liu, Le Wang, Jun Wang and Junwei Su
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Xiangbin Liu: Provincial Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Chemical Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
Le Wang: Mechanical Engineering College, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
Jun Wang: Provincial Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Chemical Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
Junwei Su: School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-23

Abstract: The particles, water and oil three-phase flow behaviors at the pore scale is significant to clarify the dynamic mechanism in the particle flooding process. In this work, a newly developed direct numerical simulation techniques, i.e., VOF-FDM-DEM method is employed to perform the simulation of several different particle flooding processes after water flooding, which are carried out with a porous structure obtained by CT scanning of a real rock. The study on the distribution of remaining oil and the displacement process of viscoelastic particles shows that the capillary barrier near the location with the abrupt change of pore radius is the main reason for the formation of remaining oil. There is a dynamic threshold in the process of producing remaining oil. Only when the displacement force exceeds this threshold, the remaining oil can be produced. The flow behavior of particle–oil–water under three different flooding modes, i.e., continuous injection, alternate injection and slug injection, is studied. It is found that the particle size and the injection mode have an important influence on the fluid flow. On this basis, the flow behavior, pressure characteristics and recovery efficiency of the three injection modes are compared. It is found that by injecting two kinds of fluids with different resistance increasing ability into the pores, they can enter into different pore channels, resulting in the imbalance of the force on the remaining oil interface and formation of different resistance between the channels, which can realize the rapid recovery of the remaining oil.

Keywords: pore scale; numerical simulation; particle flooding; VOF-FDM-DEM; oil recovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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