The Open Fuels & Energy Science Journal

2016, 9 : 29-36
Published online 2016 September 21. DOI: 10.2174/1876973X01609010029
Publisher ID: TOEFJ-9-29

RESEARCH ARTICLE
 Numerical Calculation of Flow Characteristics of Enhanced Foam System in Porous Medium

Chengli Zhang1, * , Guodong Qu1 , Guoqiang Cui2 and Mingxing Bai1

* Address correspondence to this author at the School of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, 163318, China; Tel: +8613845948796; Fax: +8604596503482; E-mail: zhangchengli0303@163.com

ABSTRACT

Enhanced foam flooding is a chemical flooding technology, which is applied to improve the recovery efficiency of oil and gas. The oil displacement agent of enhanced foam flooding is a foam that the polymer and surfactant solution as liquid. In this paper, three-dimensional mathematical model of unsteady flow is established about enhanced foam system in the porous media, and the numerical calculation method is given to study the enhanced foam flooding. The results show that: the unsteady flow of enhanced foam system in porous media exists flow front, the flow foam average density of flow front reach the peak; enhanced foam flooding can form the oil bank in the displacement front and the oil saturation of the oil bank reaches about 0.55, the oil bank can produce effective drive to remain oil and then improve oil recovery.

Keywords :

Enhanced Foam System, Flow Foam Average Density, Mathematical Model, Porous Media, Unsteady Flow.