Analytical solution of polymer slug injection with viscous fingering
File(s)10.1007%2Fs10596-018-9721-0.pdf (1.6 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Abdul Hamid, Shahrizal
Muggeridge, AH
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We present an analytical solution to estimate the minimum polymer slug size needed to ensure that viscous fingering of chase water does not cause its breakdown during secondary oil recovery. Polymer flooding is typically used to improve oil recovery from more viscous oil reservoirs. The polymer is injected as a slug followed by chase water to reduce costs; however, the water is less viscous than the oil. This can result in miscible viscous fingering of the water into the polymer, breaking down the slug and reducing recovery. The solution assumes that the average effect of fingering can be represented by the empirical Todd and Longstaff model. The analytical calculation of minimum slug size is compared against numerical solutions using the Todd and Longstaff model as well as high resolution first contact miscible simulation of the fingering. The ability to rapidly determine the minimum polymer slug size is potentially very useful during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) screening studies.
Date Issued
2018-06-01
Date Acceptance
2018-01-05
Citation
Computational Geosciences: modeling, simulation and data analysis, 2018, 22 (3), pp.711-723
ISSN
1420-0597
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
711
End Page
723
Journal / Book Title
Computational Geosciences: modeling, simulation and data analysis
Volume
22
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
License URL
Identifier
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10596-018-9721-0
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Physical Sciences
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Computer Science
Geology
Polymer slug
Viscous fingering
Enhanced oil recovery
Method of characteristics
POROUS-MEDIA
MISCIBLE DISPLACEMENT
FLOODING TECHNOLOGY
OIL DISPLACEMENT
PERFORMANCE
SIMULATION
FLOW
Numerical & Computational Mathematics
0499 Other Earth Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-02-08