SPE-174582-MS

Numerical Modelling on Dynamic Adsorption of Viscoelastic Polymer in

Near Wellbore Conditions by Population Balance Method
ByungIn Choi, Computer Modelling Group Ltd.; Moon Sik Jeong and Kun Sang Lee, Hanyang University

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Enhanced Oil Recovery Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11–13 August 2015.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
Significant injectivity loss during polymer injection measured particularly in the near wellbore has been
reported. This challengeable issue is identified as bridging polymer adsorption caused by the bridging of
pore throats via macromolecular polymers previously stretched under elongational flow conditions
occurring in the vicinity of the injection well. There has been no attempt to describe this phenomenon by
numerical simulation model because the conventional Langmuir isotherm widely used in reservoir
simulation is not able to contain this bridging-adsorption observed in complicated polymer flooding
experiments.
This study focuses on the development of numerical model for the bridging adsorption by implement-
ing population balance theory and performs extensive simulation verifications with small core-scale
reservoir rock. To reflect distinct flow condition to induce bridging adsorption, the rate of bridging
adsorption is established by considering the relationship of expanded polymer under shear force and
narrow pore size. To verify the feasibility of new model, simulation results are compared with experiment
output reported in previous studies. The simulation results indicate that a considerable amount of bridged
polymer can be generated in the low permeability cells only if the polymer solution is exposed to high
shear velocity related with shear rate. This is in accordance with a number of previous experimental
reports. In addition, the mechanism to induce permeability reduction is totally different from that of
conventional Langmuir’s isotherm which is widely incorporated in commercial simulators. With buildup
of bridging-polymer, the adsorption model can enable the application of numerical simulation targeted at
chemical EOR process to be wider.
Introduction
Polymer flooding has been undoubtedly considered as one of the most effective methods for successful
oil production. Synthetic polymers are among the most commonly-used chemicals in polymer EOR
applications (Sorbie 1991). A number of factors related to poor polymer propagation should be examined
both theoretically and experimentally prior to the field application. Among these factors, large in-situ
adsorption requires appropriate treatment to maintain efficiency in polymer flooding. The significant
in-situ adsorption in the porous media, however, is challenging to identify and is the primary concern in
this work.
2 SPE-174582-MS

In the experiments, a significantly higher injectivity loss is observed due to the special type of polymer
adsorption (Manichand and Seright 2014). According to previous studies, polymer adsorption takes place
primarily via two mechanisms: the static adsorption of polymer molecules on the walls of large pores and
the bridging adsorption, so-called shear-induced adsorption, of polymer under high shear rates through
tight pore throats (Zitha et al. 1995; Zitha and Botermans 1998; Zaitoun and Chauveteau 1998;
Chauveateau et al. 2002).
The distinguishing feature of bridging-adsorption or shear-induced adsorption is that the process takes
place only in the near-wellbore condition where high molecular polymer particles are exposed to high
shear stress. Another feature of interest is that bridging adsorption is subject to pore size distribution. Such
behavior varying from particle to particle depends on a number of properties that may be associated with
the reservoir. Based on previous experimental studies, more thorough understanding of this new type of
adsorption is physically identified and characterized (Zitha et al. 1995; Zaitoun and Chauveteau 1998;
Chauveateau et al. 2002).
Although its significance is clear for in-situ conditions, the numerical methods for bridging adsorption
have not been emphasized. Moreover, conventional Langmuir adsorption isotherm has shown its defi-
ciency on accounting for the dependencies on shear rate and pore size. Lacks of numerical models result
in the poor agreement between the calculated prediction and field observation. Review on bridging
adsorption in earlier studies provides the framework for the development of the phenomenological
bridging adsorption model. Based on physical characteristics, this paper accounts for the mechanism of
shear-induced adsorption and proposes a new approach to numerical depiction using the population
balance theory. Reservoir simulations in microscopic scale based on the proposed theoretical model are
also undertaken to predict polymer retention caused from both static adsorption and dynamic adsorption.
Accurate estimations from the numerical model will reduce the risk of polymer flooding in the injection
treatment, providing oil field operators with more accurate assurance prior to the polymer injection design.
Theoretical Background
Adsorption is attributed to the restriction to the flow of macromolecular polymer. Normally, the
adsorption consists of two mechanisms, static adsorption and flow-induced adsorption. During static
adsorption, the polymer macromolecules can get adsorbed on the pore walls, resulting in a reduction of
the reservoir permeability. This adsorption occurs in all pore walls to which the polymer particles can get
access. For the dynamic polymer adsorption, the elongated polymer particles by shear force can bridge the
narrow pore zone between adjacent rock particles. This phenomenon has been identified as a new type of
polymer adsorption and is referred to as “bridging adsorption” or “flow-induced adsorption.” This
bridging adsorption induces a progressive bridging of pore channels (Zitha and Botermans 1998). The
effects of bridging adsorption are strong in low permeability and decrease as permeability increases
(Zaitoun and Chauveteau 1998). As permeability increases, this type of adsorption takes place less
frequently due primarily to the existence of very large pores that cannot be bridged by macromolecules
(Chauveateau et al. 2002). The permeability-dependency of bridging adsorption is verified through greater
permeability resistance factors in the low-permeability cores than in the high-permeability ones, even
though other experimental conditions are same (Zitha et al. 1995).
Rheology of Polymeric Solution
To understand bridging adsorption, the concept of changing polymer size caused by shear-force should be
primarily seized. The alteration in polymer size is identified as change of polymer viscosity and
hydrodynamic volume, assuming sphere particle. In other words, the increased viscosity implies extended
polymer chain if other conditions are same. Thus, it is needed to investigate rheological characteristics of
polymer solution.
A non-Newtonian rheology of high-molecular-weight polymer solutions in porous media has been
detailed in a series of papers and three rheological regimes were reported in high-permeability porous
SPE-174582-MS 3

media (Jennings et al. 1971; Sorbie 1991; Xian-Qing et al. 1995; Roland et al. 2004; Delshad et al. 2008;
Goudarzi et al. 2013). At low shear rate, the behavior of a polymer solution is Newtonian with a constant
viscosity. This is due to the absence of coil deformation, based on the weakness of hydrodynamic forces
as compared to thermal forces. A shear-thinning regime is observed at higher rates due to the deformation
of the coiled macromolecules oriented in the flow direction from spheres to ellipsoids. The dominant force
in this regime is shear force. At very high rate, the fluid experiences shear-thickening due to the high
viscous dissipation of macromolecules stretched by elongation forces (Chauveteau and Sorbie 1991). The
viscosity of the polymer solution is highly affected by the shear rates. The curves of the viscosity are
plotted as a function of concentration and shear velocity in Figure 1. The rheology of high-molecular-
weight polymer is expected to exhibit non-Newtonian characteristics. This indicates the importance of the
ratio between the radius of the polymer coil and the porous media.

Figure 1—Viscoelastic model of polymeric solution measured via viscometer and core test (Yuan 1981).

Polymer Adsorption Mechanism

The magnitude of polymer adsorption is one of the key factors in determining the economic viability of
polymer flooding. The adsorption processes are known to be closely related to reservoir parameters such
as accessible surface area, salinity, temperature, and polymer bulk size. The adsorption of polymer
particles in porous media occurs via two main mechanisms:
1. Static adsorption, whereby particles get adhered to the rock surface due to the electrostatic,
hydrodynamic, and gravitational forces.
2. Dynamic adsorption, whereby elongated particles are bridged or trapped at a pore throat that is
smaller than the particle size.
The majority of existing research is interested primarily in the static-adsorption mechanism because the
reservoirs are under favorable conditions and relatively suitable for polymer floods. In the presence of
high-permeability and homogeneous characteristics, the static adsorption mechanism is the main source
of total retention (Satter et al. 1980; Huh et al. 1990; Huang and Sorbie 1992; Cardoso et al. 2007). Since
the complicated processes of total retention occurring in highly heterogeneous reservoirs cannot be
elucidated via static adsorption alone, the mathematical depiction of total polymer adsorption needs to be
modified using new mathematical approaches. As mentioned above, the potential polymer concentration
4 SPE-174582-MS

used in Langmuir’s isotherm model is viewed as the main force provoking the occurrence of static
polymer adsorption on the rock surface. However, it is impossible to account for all types of adsorptions
using only concentration potential. New approach should be added for more accurate description of
bridging adsorption model. Details associated with numerical approach to describe new type of polymer
adsorption will be presented in the numerical modelling section.
Population Balance Theory
Population balance theory is a suitable idea to describe bridging adsorption because it has covered a wide
range of dispersed phase systems including solid-liquid, gas-liquid, gas-solid, and liquid-liquid disper-
sions (Ramkrishana 2000). The population is described via the density of a suitable extensive variable,
usually the number of particles.
The population balance method is implemented regarding the size of a polymeric solution and the pore
size distribution since the conventional approach does not cover bridging adsorption. This numerical
approach explains the various means by which particles of a specific state can either form in or disappear
from the system. Continuous variables may be encountered more frequently in population balance
analysis. For instance, a polymer particle-splitting process, where the products of splitting could con-
ceivably be either smaller or larger than the parent particle, is most naturally handled by assigning particle
size as a continuous variable (Ramkrishana 2000). In the following temporal evolution of the particulate
system, the time can be regarded as varying continuously and the rate of change of the particle state
variables can be taken into account. Sharma and Yortsos (1987a&b) analyzed the size exclusion
phenomena occurring in the porous media. They suggested an analytical and numerical solution for the
size exclusion model associated with fine migration and trapping using dimensionless population balance
equations (Vitthal et al. 1988).

Development of New Model

Workflow is presented to create integrated polymer adsorption model including shear-dependent rheo-
logical characteristics, surface adsorption and bridging adsorption between pore throats. Aim of this work
is to find a new approach to bridging adsorption modelling. The conventional adsorption model is based
on the Langmuir isotherm, in which the adsorption phenomena are considered as a function of the
concentration potential force and salinity of polymeric solutions. It is independent of phase viscosity
changes resulting from elongated polymer macromolecules. For a more realistic description of polymer
adsorption during injection into porous media, the polymer adsorption process is independently split into
two parts; static adsorption and dynamic adsorption.
Shear-Dependent Rheology of Polymer Solution
The dependency of viscosity on shear velocity, which polymer solution is exposed to, is key characteristic
in the viscosity of flexible polymer under shear forces. Generally, this characteristic shows distinct
behavior of polymer solution depending on shear regime. The determination and characteristic for each
region are not dealt in this study because there are a list of resources (Cannella et al. 1988; Delshad et al.
2008; Shahin and Thigpen 1996; Teeuw and Hesselink 1980; Kaminsky et al. 2007; Al Azri et al. 2010;
Zhang and Seright 2013; Computer Modelling Group. 2014). The elongational force enables the polymer
can be stretched, which is necessarily required to bridge narrow flow channels in such conditions. In order
to model the phenomena, the general viscosity table is used in terms of shear velocity versus viscosity.
This study employs shear velocity considering reservoir geometry such as porosity and permeability as
well as injection rate rather than shear rates widely used in physical experiments. Based on knowledge of
the reservoir geometry, Equation 1 indicates the relationship between shear velocity and shear rate.
(1)
SPE-174582-MS 5

The shear rate factor is given by

(2)

Inputs for representing the viscoelastic characteristic are listed in the Table 1. Plotting viscosity in the
whole range of shear velocity shown in Figure 2 can indicates three main regions of non-Newtonian
polymer solution explicitly. One thing we have to focus on this data is the implication of critical shear
velocity. It will be used as input value for modelling bridging adsorption which is dependent on shear
velocity due to extension of polymer chain under shear-force effects.

Table 1—Rheology of polymer solution in terms of viscosity

versus shear velocity.
Shear velocity (ft/day) Viscosity of polymer solution (cp)

0.0001 3.80
0.04 4.00
0.05 3.99
0.06 3.87
0.07 3.79
0.08 3.73
0.09 3.68
0.1 3.65
0.2 3.65
0.3 3.89
0.4 4.22
0.5 4.60
0.7 5.43
0.76 5.69
0.8 5.87
1 6.77
2 11.5
3 16.3
4 16.3
5 16.2
6 16.1
7 16.1
6 SPE-174582-MS

Figure 2—In-situ polymer rheology at various shear velocity.

Modelling of Static Polymer Adsorption

Modelling of static adsorption, which is generally accepted as adsorption, can be identified by Langmuir’s
isotherm in most of reservoir simulations. This study also adopts the Langmuir’s isotherm to model static
adsorption. Furthermore, relationship of the adsorbed amounts being reversely proportional to pore size
is incorporated in this model. The maximum capacity of polymer adsorption sites is closely related to the
pore permeability, which is a function of pore size. These relationships are considered by bundles of
capillary tubes using the Hagen-Poiseuille equation.
The conventional Langmuir isotherm is adopted in this work for static adsorption modelling. The
Langmuir isotherm is given by
(3)

In the most long-term polymer injection experiments, the amount of polymer adsorption can reach the
maximum capacity for polymer particles to adhere onto rock surface. The maximum capacity is based on
the scaling of permeability compared to reference permeability. For the same porosity, the surface area in
the low-permeability zone is larger than that in the high-permeability zone; therefore, each grid cell has
a specific maximum adsorption capacity depending on its permeability. Input values are listed in Table
2 below.

Table 2—Maximum polymer adsorption capacity

Maximum adsorption capacity
Permeability (md) (moles / pore volume)

50 5⫻10⫺6
150 4⫻10⫺6
1,200 2⫻10⫺6

Permeability reduction factor due to static adsorption is taken into account as being reversely
proportional to permeability because the reduction in radius of flow channel is determined according to
SPE-174582-MS 7

the permeability (Cohen and Christ 1986). The dependency of permeability reduction factor (Fkr) to each
permeability value is written in Equations 4, 5, and 6:
(4)

This permeability reduction factor is caused by the adsorption and is normally expressed as
(5)

or
(6)

Permeability reduction factor is input being different with permeability. Constant values of 2.5, 1.85,
and 1.15 are assigned for the grid cells with permeabilities of 50 md, 150 md and 1,200 md, respectably.
Modelling of Bridging Polymer Adsorption
The main goal in this study is to propose numerical theory on the bridging adsorption which has been
identified only by complicated experiments; a mechanistic model is defined and implemented in numer-
ical simulation based on population balance model. Use of mechanistic polymer adsorption model, which
can simulate dynamic adsorption, requires a fundamental process of recognition for bridged polymer
between small pore throats. It is entirely different component from original polymer component existing
in water phase i.e. there are different polymer components with same physical properties. Generally, as
only three or four phases (water, oil, gas, and solid) are mostly used in the most numerical simulations,
the two distinct polymer components should be defined as either component in water phase or in solid
phase. In other words, there are one component named as polymer in water phase and another component
named as brig_polymer in solid phase in this simulation model. To describe the change in existing phases,
a reaction, which can function only in specific flow condition, has been implemented.
(7)

Equation 7 models polymer bridging adsorption into small pore network. It results in strong adherence
onto pore throats which cannot be extracted physically in the normal flow condition (Chauveateau et al.
2002; Zitha et al. 2003). Therefore, the irreversible transfer model from Polymer component into Bridging
polymer component is taken into account. This numerical approach based on population balance theory
has been applied to several topics such as foam generation or clay migration in reservoir simulation works.
To validate the model, some quantitative input terms, usually acquired from history matching, are
needed in numerical simulation. The reason to use history matching is that it does not require additional
partial differential equation (PDE). Moreover, some parameters have not been completely identified until
now because they are so complicated with superposition of several parameters. The identification of
parameters in terms of physical-mathematical model is out of scope in this study.
Description on the distinct flow condition for occurrence of bridging adsorption should be incorporated
in the mechanistic model to enable the simplified numerical model to match with experimental results.
The first step is to build up general model for non-equilibrium mass transfer of flowing polymer in the
reservoir. The general model is given as follows;
(8)

Generation of bridging adsorption requires two distinct flow conditions; (a) when polymer solution is
exposed to high shear force in such condition of the near wellbore, and thus (b) the elongated polymer
8 SPE-174582-MS

under high shear force forms a bridge between narrow pore particles, especially in the low-permeability
pore throats. These phenomena result in significant increase in injection pressure or well block pressure
where injector is located. Many studies have reported that this phenomenal increase in pressure is due to
the severe formation damage induced by bridging adsorption. (Zaitoun and Kohler 1987; Zitha et al. 1995;
Zaitoun and Chauveteau 1998; Denys et al. 2001; Chauveteau et al. 2002). The new numerical model
proposed in this study incorporates the dependency of occurrence of bridging adsorption on the flow
conditions. In other words, the rate of generating bridging adsorption, k , is specified as a function of
permeability and shear velocity. Employing the general form of this population balance theory in the
CMG STARS reservoir simulation is referred to and simplified in the form of a non-equilibrium mass
transfer process as follows (Computer Modelling Group. 2014);
(9)

where, u is the shear velocity and k is the permeability of each grid cell. Equation 9 clearly explains
that the specific relationship between bridging adsorption and two flow conditions. Each of the flow term,
and , is calculated according to input values specified.
The scaling factor on viscosity dependency is calculated via the shear velocity, which is the modified
shear rate with respect to the reservoir properties. Equation 10 gives the scaling factor being dependent
on the shear velocity.
(10)

As shown above, the critical velocity is used as the cut-off velocity to determine reaction onset. When
V ⬍ Vcrit, no scaling factor is assigned regarding velocity. This critical velocity, Vcrit, is specified as 0.2
ft/day which is onset shear velocity to induce polymer expansion recognized as starting point to shear
thickening regime. Also, the reference shear velocity, Vcrit, plays scaling factor set up as 0.2 for the rate
of transfer to bridging adsorption. The number of 2.5 is used for the exponent parameter, exp, regarded
as general fitting constant exponent.
In addition to dependency of shear velocity, the rate includes permeability dependency as well, which
is usually acquired from experimental data (Zitha et al., 1995). The pore size determined by permeability
implies a reverse trend in the rate of bridging since areas of large pore diameter such as the high
permeability zone cannot capture a significant number of polymer particles. Thus, dimensionless scaling
factor, which accelerates the rate of bridging, is established with respect to permeability. The reaction rate,
k(K), is inversely proportional to the permeability, decreasing the amounts of bridging adsorption as
permeability increases. Therefore, the bridging adsorption rate is finally derived by multiplying each
scaling factor for velocity and permeability dependency to initial bridging constant rate.
An experimental study conducted with low to high shear rates for various permeability cores is adopted
as a reference for matching (Zaitoun and Chauveteau 1998). Table 3 shows permeability factors applied
to calculate scaling factor depending core permeability. By comparing rheology of the polymer solution
at given condition presented in the experiment, the specific permeability reduction factors are selected for
the values measured at shear rate 600 sec⫺1 which is applied to shear thickening regime in this
experiment. Some values initially out of range of 600 sec⫺1 is converted using linear interpolation. Core
with the highest permeability value of 1,200 md does not have proper permeability reduction factor and
shows very low values even in high shear rate region. This permeability is considered as boundary value
that bridging adsorption finally does not take place. All core models are built up as 100% saturated only
by water phase.
SPE-174582-MS 9

Table 3—Permeability reduction factors used in simulation as input value for permeability dependent scaling based on core tests at
low permeability to high permeability.
Input permeability
Permeability Reduction values used in simulation Modified permeability
Permeability (md) Porosity (%) (Rk) (md) reduction factors (Rk’)

61 0.20 38 50 40
162 0.18 21.5 150 25
548 0.23 12.5 550 12.5
1,200 0.44 unknown 1,200 1 (⫽no reduction)

Permeability reduction factor, named as solid blockage resistance factors in the simulation, resulting
from the match for the low and high perm floods is shown in Figure 3. Results of permeability reduction
factors occurring during polymer flooding into core models are consistent with the results of experiment
listed in Table 3. Figure 4 represents permeability reduction factor caused from polymer flooding between
water flow before and after polymer injection. For 1,200 md core, there is little polymer adsorption to
prevent water flow while highly decreasing degree of permeability to water flow at low permeability core
is observed.

Figure 3—Blockage resistance factors resulting from polymer adsorption for high and low permeability core flood.

Figure 4 —Distribution of blockage resistance factors across cores for high and low permeability flood.
10 SPE-174582-MS

Validation of Bridging Adsorption Model

In terms of success in numerical modelling in this study, the most important task is to verify the
independency between static and bridging adsorption. Both static adsorption and bridging adsorption must
be operated without conflicts in the simulation. Another important focus is to test the dependent
characteristic of both adsorption models in the simulation results. In other words, both models should
show dependency on permeability which is related to pore size. Lastly, variation in bridging adsorption
depending on shear-velocity should be observed, implying the elongation of polymer particles under shear
force.
To observe the important results, homogeneous core models with different permeabilities, 50 md and
1,200 md, are created. Also, low and high injection rate are constrained in these cores. The injection rate
varies from 0.006 bbl/day to 0.048 bbl/day.

Independency of Static Adsorption and Bridging Adsorption

In order to confirm the independency of each adsorption, three numerical models are compared. Each
model includes different mechanism; Case 1 considers only static adsorption, Case 2 only bridging
adsorption, and Case 3 both mechanisms. Reservoir condition and well constraints used in this test are
same for all cases. Variation in polymer concentration and permeability reduction factor across each
model enables us to verify independent operation of each keyword associated static adsorption and
bridging adsorption. Figures 5 and 6 indicate that polymer concentration changes depending on the
inclusion of adsorption mechanisms.

Figure 5—Distribution of polymer mass fraction across core with 150 md during polymer flood.
SPE-174582-MS 11

Figure 6 —Variation in polymer mass fraction at grid block (15, 1, 1) in middle of core during polymer flood.

Results of permeability reduction factor to water phase are compared. As stated in previous section,
this parameter only comes from adsorption. The degree of permeability reduction should be different as
well if different adsorption mechanism takes place. This expectation is obviously consistent with results
in Figure 7. The results verify that the effect of bridging adsorption on reduction factor in water
permeability is much greater than that from static adsorption.

Figure 7—Distribution of permeability reduction factors to water flow across core with 150 md during polymer flood.

Effects of Permeability on Static Adsorption

Figure 8 illustrates the distribution of polymer amount by static adsorption. The values are same with input
value of maximum adsorption capacity depending on permeability. It can be seen that the higher the
12 SPE-174582-MS

permeability, the fewer the adsorption sites. As a result, less amount of polymer can be adsorbed in high
permeability core.

Figure 8 —Distribution of adsorbed polymer across core with 150 md during polymer flood.

Another distinct feature resulting from permeability variation is the permeability reduction factors. As
shown in Figure 9, the adsorption reaches its maximum amount after a sufficient time passes. It is also
indicated that the higher the permeability, the less its reduction. However, the difference between
reduction factors in two models is not much.

Figure 9 —Distribution of permeability reduction factors to water flow across cores with 150 md and 1,200 md during polymer flood.

To verify independence of shear velocity on static adsorption, one more test is conducted on the core
of 150 md with injection rate varying from 0.006 to 0.048 bbl/day. Figure 10 shows that the amount of
polymer adsorption is same in both cases regardless of injection rate. It is known that only with
Langmuir-type approach or static adsorption, it is not sufficient for description of real polymer adsorption
behavior. The results clearly call for that the other type of approach to depict dependency of polymer
adsorption on shear velocity should be developed.
SPE-174582-MS 13

Figure 10 —Distribution of amount of adsorbed polymer across core with 150 md during polymer flood at low and high injection rate.

Generation of Bridging Adsorption Depending on Flowing Conditions

The developed model has been implemented to guarantee the need for new type of approach to describe
polymer adsorption more accurately. Firstly, effects of both flowing conditions such as permeability and
shear velocity are completely investigated. Comparison of previous result for static adsorption enables us
to have confidence for feasibility of this numerical model to apply to real prediction. Figure 11 shows
BHP history at high permeability core depending on injection rates. Obviously, there seems no significant
increase in BHP by permeability reduction. The increase results from the higher mobility compared to that
of water. As a result, the increased BHP turns down to almost that originally shown in preflush waterflood.
Figure 12 indicates the BHP from case over injection rate of 0.0012 bbl/day does not reach steady state
until polymer flood is completed. Particularly, the results show BHP during post waterflood even after
polymer flood remains about three times higher compared to initial BHP. This implies the reservoir core
must be damaged due to a great degree of bridged-adsorption. Additional higher injection rate case of
0.0024 bbl/day at low permeability core is not presented in the results because its BHP behavior reaches
too early to the maximum pressure constraint of 10,000 psi. Too large permeability reduction must have
taken place.

Figure 11—History of bottom-hole pressure (BHP) in injector at 1,200 md core during polymer flood with several injection rates.
14 SPE-174582-MS

Figure 12—History of bottom-hole pressure (BHP) in injector at 50 md core during polymer flood with several injection rates.

The Figure 13 shows the generation of bridging adsorption. The sufficient amount of bridged polymer
is only observed in high injection rate into low permeability core. The amount in other cores is less than
one tenth of the greatest one. This result confirms that new numerical model generates bridging adsorption
only if the proper flow conditions are achieved like high shear velocity and low permeability. Compared
with results shown in Figure 14, the significant increase in permeability reduction factor takes place by
bridging adsorption. That is because the static adsorption occurred in both cases with same permeability
is a function of only permeability. However, higher rates lead to severe damage to water permeability.

Figure 13—Distribution of bridging adsorption generation depending on flow conditions.

SPE-174582-MS 15

Figure 14 —Blockage resistance factors caused by both polymer adsorption for depending on flow conditions.

New adsorption model including static and bridging adsorption shows dependency on permeability and
shear velocity. This behavior is very consistent with results reported from previous experiments.

Application of New Simulation Model to Practical Core Rock

Verification test for sensitivity of new numerical model to shear velocity and permeability is performed
in realistic core model. To focus on bridging adsorption behavior, input parameters such as maximum
adsorption capacity and water resistance factor by static adsorption are considered as being constant
regardless grid cell permeability. The core model in Figure 15 represents heterogeneous characteristic in
terms of permeability. Since various injection rates are applied to this model, the shear velocity taking
place in the in-situ condition shows different behaviors depending on regions. The highest shear velocity
is observed in the near wellbore region and low shear velocity regime appears in the middle section of the
core. Additional simulation is carried out to core scale rock with heterogeneous spatial properties of
porosity and permeability. The core consists of 5 layers in both IJ- and IK-plain and 50 layers in JK-plain,
respectively. The injector and producer are located in (1, 3, 3) and (100, 3, 3) to investigate bridging
adsorption occurrence in realistic flow condition. Figure 15 shows the entire core shape which consist of
totally 2,500 grid blocks. Injection and production source is placed onto the center of 1st and last plain
in JK plain. As shown in Figure 16, each grid block has different permeability and porosity, representing
heterogeneous spatial characteristic.
16 SPE-174582-MS

Figure 15—3D concept of core model with heterogeneous characteristics.

Figure 16 —Permeability distribution in each center plain in IJ- and IK-cross section and first plain in JK plain.

Distribution of Polymer Concentration by Bridging Adsorption

Figure 17 indicates the amount of bridging adsorption in JK-cross section. Results show that a great
amount of polymer is bridged in the near injector as expected. The polymer cannot generate bridging
adsorption up to 10th plain due to the absence of sufficient shear force to induce polymer elongation. In
the very near wellbore area, the amount of bridging adsorption is approximately 15 times more than that
in middle of core. As shown in Fig. 18, rapid decrease in shear velocity with distance from injector is
reliable evidence for significantly reducedamount of bridging adsorption from about 0.7~0.8 ft from
injector.
SPE-174582-MS 17

Figure 17—Distribution of bridging adsorption generation at 1st and 10th plain in JK-cross section.

Figure 18 —Distribution of shear velocity with distance from injector.

At the center plains in IJ- and IK cross sections illustrated in Figure 19, bridging adsorption is
concentrated in very limited area in conjunction with injection. Little amount of bridging adsorption is
observed in the middle of flow path where polymer can penetrate relatively easily. All results explained
above can verify great accordance with results of previous experiments. With confirmation of reliable
simulation result, the new model can be applied to prediction for visco-dependent polymer flow into
porous media.
18 SPE-174582-MS

Figure 19 —Distribution of bridging adsorption generation in IJ and IK-cross sections.

Conclusions
This study proposes a new type of numerical model to describe bridging adsorption and estimations are
made based on extensive simulation works. The following conclusions are drawn from these results.
1. Bridging adsorption model is developed using phase transfer from Polymer in water phase into
Bridging polymer in solid phase based on population balance theory.
2. New model can verify independency between static adsorption modelled by Langmuir isotherm
and bridging adsorption. As a result, shear velocity dependent characteristic observed in real
experiment can be also described in simulation model. This is the first attempt for new type of
polymer adsorption.
3. Static adsorption indicates permeability dependent results while cannot show dependency on shear
velocity which induces polymer elongation. Regardless of injection rate, this conventional ad-
sorption model shows same results in terms of adsorption amount and permeability reduction.
4. Bridging adsorption can take place only if two flow conditions are satisfied; higher shear velocity
and low pore size shown in low permeability. The new model can verify these two flow dependent
characteristics. In addition, permeability reduction caused by both adsorptions is shown as
dependency on its initial own permeability. In other words, higher permeability reduction is
observed in low permeability zone.

Acknowledgement
The authors thank Computer Modelling Group Ltd. for their providing the CMG’ STARS software in this
academic research. The authors inform that this work was supported by the Energy Efficiency &
Resources of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) granted
financial resource from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), Republic of Korea
(No.20122010300020).

List of Symbols
AdC Maximum adsorption capacity (gmole/m3)
ap1,ap2 Input or fitting parameters
ap,bp Empirical constant
bkr Empirical constant
C Constant value for shear rate factor calculation
SPE-174582-MS 19

Cp Injected polymer concentration or the polymer concentration before adsorption (gmole/

m3)
Ĉp Residual adsorption level (gmole/m3)
Cp–Ĉp Equilibrium concentration in the rock-polymer solution system (gmole/m3)
Cp,brid–ads Bridging adsorption concentration (lbmole/ft3)
Cp,Water Polymer concentration in water phase (lbmole/ft3)
CSep Effective salinity for polymer
exp Exponent in the shear velocity scaling factor
Fkr Permeability reduction factor (dimensionless)
Fkr,max Maximum permeability reduction factor (dimensionless)
k Rock permeability (md)
kp Rock permeability when aqueous polymer solution flow (md)
kr,1 Phase relative permeability
kref Reference permeability (md)
kw Rock permeability under water flow (md)
q Flow rate (bbl/day)
S1 Phase saturation
u1 Phase Darcy velocity
V Shear velocity (ft/day)
Vcrit Cut-off shear velocity (ft/day)
Vref Reference shear velocity for reaction rate (ft/day)

Greek Symbols
k’ Rate of reaction constant
k(k) Reaction rate of bridging adsorption as a function of single parameter (lbmole/day)
k(u,k) Reaction rate of bridging adsorption process as a function of multi parameters (lbmole/day)
␳a Number of particles per unit pore volume
␳w Density of water Phase

Subscripts
brid-ads Bridging adsorption
crit Critical
max Maximum
ref Reference

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