Application of CFD to Investigate the Efficiency of Water and Nanofluid Flooding in Enhanced Oil Recovery

In recent years, the use of nanotechnology as one of the new methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery(EOR) has been considered by many researchers. However, few studies have addressed water andnanofluid flooding from a mesoscopic point of view. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluatethe influence of water and nanoparticles flooding on EOR in pore-scale using COMSOL Multiphysicssoftware and the micro-CT imaging technique. The Navier -Stokes equations and the phase-field modelwere coupled to describe the flooding process and trace the interface between the two phases. Theimpact of injection fluid velocity and concentration of SiO۲ nanofluid on EOR in water-wet and oil-wetreservoirs were analyzed. A quantitative comparison of nanofluid and water flooding showed that byincreasing the volume fraction of SiO۲ from ۲۰% to ۵۰%, the rate of oil recovery increases by ۱.۵%,while this amount is ۱۸% compared to water flooding. From the results, it has been found that theresidual oil decreases proportionally to increasing velocity. In addition, the flow paths, velocity, andpressure profile in actual porous media have been scrutinized.

کلیدواژه ها:

EOR ، SiO۲ Nanofluid ، Phase-field model ، CFD ، Micro-CT