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A Computational Study of Polymer Solutions Flow Regimes during Oil Recovery from a Fractured Model

Authors :
Dmitriy Guzei
Angelica Skorobogatova
Sofia Ivanova
Andrey Minakov
Source :
Applied Sciences, Vol 13, Iss 20, p 11508 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2023.

Abstract

Increasing the efficiency of hydrocarbon field development is an important issue. One of the methods for increasing oil recovery is the injection of aqueous solutions of polymers. Although this method has been known and used for quite some time, further systematic research is needed to further improve its effectiveness. In this work, systematic computational studies of the features of oil displacement by aqueous polymer solutions from a naturally fractured structure were carried out. Direct numerical modeling of a two-phase immiscible flow in the process of displacing oil from a natural fracture structure using solutions of anionic polymers based on polyacrylamide was carried out. Aqueous solutions of three different polymers were considered, the concentrations of which varied from 0 to 0.1%, and the molecular weights were from 10 to 20 mln c.u. The rheological properties of polymers and their wetting characteristics have been previously studied in laboratory experiments. A distinctive feature of the polymers considered was the non-Newtonian nature of their aqueous solutions even at low concentrations. To take these processes into account, the computational technique has been extended to the case of non-Newtonian rheology for immiscible two-phase flow in one of the media. During numerical simulations, the effect of the concentration of polymers, their molecular weight, and charging density on the flow regimes in a fractured reservoir have been investigated systematically at various crude oil viscosities. It has been shown that the use of a 0.1% aqueous solution of polyacrymalide can increase the oil-recovery factor by 1.8 times. It has been established that, with an increase in the molecular weight and surface charge density of the polymer, the efficiency of its use for enhancing oil recovery increases. With an increase in the viscosity of the displaced oil, the effect of using the injection of the considered polymers also increases. The data obtained in this work can be used to further improve polymer-flooding technologies for oil fields.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20763417
Volume :
13
Issue :
20
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Applied Sciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.19317be1d5f9495293efe24d746ad8cd
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/app132011508