Study on the flow resistance of the dispersion system of deformable preformed particle gel in porous media using LBM-DEM-IMB method

Abstract

After being injected into the porous media, the dispersion system of preformed particle gel (PPG) tends to enter high permeability regions and block water channeling passages, which forces the subsequent water to turn to the low permeability regions and thus increases sweep efficiency and enhances oil recovery. However, it is still unclear about the influence factors and the mechanisms how PPG increases water flow resistance, which limits the application of PPG in more oilfields. Therefore, the paper combines the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), the discrete element method (DEM) and the improved immersed moving boundary (IMB) method to simulate the migration of deformable PPG in porous media. On the basis, the paper quantitatively analyzes the variation law of displacement pressure across the porous media and discusses the influence factors such as the PPG diameter, elasticity modulus and the number concentration. Results indicate that, because of the friction and retention of PPG in pore-throat, the displacement pressure across the porous media during PPG flooding is much higher than that during water flooding. In other words, the existence of PPG increases the flow resistance of injected water. Besides, the displacement pressure is always fluctuant resulting from the continuous process of PPG migration, retention, deformation and remigration. Influence factor analysis shows that the incremental value and fluctuation degree of flow resistance increase with the PPG diameter, elasticity modulus and the number concentration. The study not only provides useful reference for future PPG flooding, but also benefits the development of deformable particle flow theory.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Dispersion system
• deformable preformed particle gel
• flow resistance
• microscopic simulation
• porous media

Additional information

Funding

The authors greatly appreciate the financial support of the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2018BEE004), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant no. 18CX02169A), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51574269), the Project supported by the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 51625403), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant no. 2017M622319), the Important National Science and Technology Specific Projects of China (Grant no. 2016ZX05011-003), the Postdoctoral Application Research Project of Qingdao (Grant no. BY20170205) and the Talent Introduction Project of China University of Petroleum (YJ20170012).