Fractional flow for reversed flow boundary condition in foam

improved oil recovery (IOR)

M. J. Eneotu [1]
P. Grassia [2]
[1]
Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
[2]
Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
E-mail: maclean.eneotu@strath.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

In foam improved oil recovery (IOR), it is usually the dispersed gaseous phase (that is gas within foam)
that displaces the residual oil left behind by natural drive and other primary oil recovery
methods. It is also possible to envisage a reverse case in which the liquid phase (partly oil, but usually
containing a significant amount of water plus some surfactant), whose mobility has been shown by
several studies to be unaffected by foam injection, is now somehow pushing the invading fluid back;
hence flow reversal is occurring. This could happen for example, if the gas injection pressure declines
or alternatively as a new injection well comes online downstream of the foam flow. In that situation,
initially foam will be displacing water. Then at a certain time, flow reversal takes place. The simplest
model one can write for this situation is 𝑞𝑡 (𝑡 > 𝑡𝑟 ) = −𝑞𝑡 (𝑡 < 𝑡𝑟 ); where ‘𝑡𝑟 ’ is the instant in time at
which reversal takes place, ‘𝑞𝑡 ’ is total fluid flowrate and ‘𝑡’ is any arbitrary time other than ‘𝑡𝑟 ’. Hence,
foam displaces water up to ‘𝑡𝑟 ’, then water starts displacing foam for 𝑡 > 𝑡𝑟 . This study is focused on
how multiphase (i.e. foam and water) flow in porous media as described by the fractional flow theory,
behaves when this sort of reversal happens. Using the fractional flow model and the method of
characteristics (MOC), we have shown that during flow reversal, there is a shock; this is a jump in water
saturation ‘𝑆𝑤 ’ between foam with a small amount of water (ahead of the shock) and water with a small
amount of foam (behind it). The magnitude of the jump in water saturation at the shock grows over
time. Depending on how quickly over time the water saturation ‘𝑆𝑤 ’ decreases ahead of the shock and
how quickly ‘𝑆𝑤 ’ increases behind it, the speed of the shock (itself determined by a Rankine-Hugoniot
condition or integral mass balance) is found to vary in different ways over time. Typically, the tendency
is that the shock speed will decrease with time. The position of the shock can also be updated provided
the speed is known. Moreover, once an updated position of the shock is specified at any instant in time,
so called characteristic fans ahead of and behind it can be used to determine water saturations either side
of the shock. Thus, it is possible to iterate between determining water saturations across the shock (based
on intersections of characteristic lines at the current shock location) and determining (based on those
saturations) how fast the shock moves at any given instant and where it will be at a later time. Our study
also suggests that during flow reversal in foam IOR, characteristics that start off behind the shock will
collide with the shock as they move downstream, whilst the shock itself will collide with characteristics
ahead of it. Ultimately, the overall solution to the foam IOR problem will depend on the interaction
between the two characteristic fans.