Shiqing Cheng

Flow enhancement of water-based nanoparticle dispersion through microscale sedimentary rocks

Understanding and controlling fluids flow at the microscale is a matter of growing scientific and technological interest. Flow enhancements of water-based nanoparticle dispersions through microscale porous media are investigated through twelve hydrophilic sedimentary rocks with pore-throat radius between 1.2 and 10 μm, which are quantitatively explained with a simple model with slip length correction for Darcy flow. Both as wetting phase, water exhibited no-slip Darcy flow in all cores; however, flow enhancement of nanoparticle dispersions can be up to 5.7 times larger than that of water, and it increases with the decreasing of pore-throat radius. The experimental data reveals characteristic slip lengths are of order 500 and 1000 nm for 3M® and HNPs-1 nanoparticles, respectively, independent of the lithology or nanoparticle concentration or shear rate. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of flow degradation is observed for HNPs-2 nanoparticles. These results explore the feasible application of using nanoparticle dispersions to control flow at the microscale.

Numerical Well Testing Interpretation Model and Applications in Crossflow Double-Layer Reservoirs by Polymer Flooding

This work presents numerical well testing interpretation model and analysis techniques to evaluate formation by using pressure transient data acquired with logging tools in crossflow double-layer reservoirs by polymer flooding. A well testing model is established based on rheology experiments and by considering shear, diffusion, convection, inaccessible pore volume (IPV), permeability reduction, wellbore storage effect, and skin factors. The type curves were then developed based on this model, and parameter sensitivity is analyzed. Our research shows that the type curves have five segments with different flow status: (I) wellbore storage section, (II) intermediate flow section (transient section), (III) mid-radial flow section, (IV) crossflow section (from low permeability layer to high permeability layer), and (V) systematic radial flow section. The polymer flooding field tests prove that our model can accurately determine formation parameters in crossflow double-layer reservoirs by polymer flooding. Moreover, formation damage caused by polymer flooding can also be evaluated by comparison of the interpreted permeability with initial layered permeability before polymer flooding. Comparison of the analysis of numerical solution based on flow mechanism with observed polymer flooding field test data highlights the potential for the application of this interpretation method in formation evaluation and enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

The flow and heat transfer characteristics of compressed air in high-pressure air injection wells

High-pressure air injection (HPAI) is a significant enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology of light oils especially in deep, thin, low-permeability reservoirs. The flow and heat transfer behaviors of compressed air in wellbore is essential to maximize performance of air in EOR. Due to strong compressibility of air and high injection pressure, wellbore temperature and pressure are greatly affected by friction and gas compression. However, the available models of wellbore flow and heat transfer are only accurate for thermal fluid, such as saturated steam and superheated steam, injected at relatively low pressure and high temperature. In this paper, a novel model is proposed to characterize wellbore pressure and temperature distribution for HPAI wells with consideration of dynamic behaviors of injected air. Flow and heat transfer in depth direction are coupled with air properties by iterative technique, and heat transfer in radial direction is treated as steady state in wellbore and transient state in formation. The mathematical model is solved by employing finite difference method and it is validated by field data. Then, integrated analyses of flowing pressure, heat transfer mechanism, and interaction between pressure and temperature are conducted. Results indicate that (1) as well depth increases, temperature difference between formation and air tends to become constant, and the radial heat transfer tends to reach an equilibrium state. The higher the flow rate is, the deeper the equilibrium depth is. (2) Air temperature is dominated by heat transmission from formation at low flow rates and dominated by frictional heat and gas compression effect at high flow rates. Fictional heat begins to affect air temperature at an injection rate beyond the critical value, while gas compression effect can increase air temperature in the whole calculated injection rate range. (3) Interaction between wellbore temperature and pressure is mainly achieved by altering air density. The effect of injection pressure on air temperature can be negligible, while the influence of injection temperature shows strong dependency on injection rate.

Pressure Transient Behavior for Alternating Polymer Flooding in a Three-zone Composite Reservoir

Alternating polymer flooding has achieved great attractions recently in oil industry, however, the research of pressure analysis in alternating polymer flooding reservoir is rare. This work presents a numerical pressure analysis method of three-zone composite model for formation evaluation. A new numerical pressure analysis model (three-zone composite model) is established by considering diffusion, convection, shear, and inaccessible pore volume, which is based on the rheology experiments. Based on this model, the type curves are then developed and sensitivity analysis is further conducted. The type curves have seven regimes in three-zone composite model. The characteristic is the obvious upturn of pressure derivative curve in transient regime between low concentration and high concentration polymer solution. Formation parameters can be interpreted by history matching and formation evaluation can be conducted based on this model. As an important part of formation evaluation, formation damage as a result of adsorption of polymers in porous media is evaluated by comparing the interpreted permeability with the original value before polymer flooding. The field test data proves that this proposed method can accurately evaluate reservoir characteristics in alternating polymer flooding reservoirs, which emphasizes the potential application of this method in petroleum industry.