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Laboratory and Simulation Study of the Formation and Stability of a Liquid Bridge in a Fracture Porous Media

Adak, Zahed | 2021

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 54464 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein; Harimi, Behroos
  7. Abstract:
  8. Gravity drainage is the control mechanism of oil production from fracture reservoirs. The transfer of oil from the upper blocks to the lower blocks occurs through a capillary continuity mechanism or reinfiltration. One of the conditions for capillary continuity, which plays an important role in increasing oil recovery, is the formation of a liquid bridge in the fractures between the blocks. Therefore, quantitative analysis of the critical fracture aperture for the formation and stability of liquid bridges and the formation, growth and stability of flowing liquid droplets from the top block surface are still challenging and important topic in the study of fracture reservoirs. In this study, the stability of the liquid bridge and the formation, growth and stability of flowing liquid droplets have been investigated by both laboratory and simulation methods using COMSOL software. In the laboratory section, by designing a special device, at first, the critical fracture aperture for the static liquid bridge in different conditions of surface wettability, the volume of the liquid bridge, the type of fluid and the dip angle of the fracture were investigated. Then, the formation, growth and stability of the flowing liquid droplets from the thin section surface under different conditions of surface wettability and flow rate were investigated. Laboratory results show that the critical fracture aperture in a static liquid bridge increases with increasing the volume of the liquid bridge, contact angle, surface roughness and slope of the fracture. It was also observed that the critical fracture aperture depends on dimensionless bond number and with increasing the dimensionless bond number, the critical fracture aperture decreases. Experimental results of flowing liquid droplets showed that the stability of flowing liquid droplets depends on the rate of fluid injection and surface wettability. In this section, it was observed that the critical band number decreases with increasing contact angle while the injection rate has no effect on it. In the simulation section, using the COMSOL software, three states of the liquid bridge in static conditions, the elongation of the liquid bridge with the movement of the plates and the flowing liquid drop from the surface were investigated. In the static section, the critical fracture aperture obtained from the simulations were validated with the laboratory results and a very good fit was obtained. Then, by performing a wide sensitivity analysis on the parameters affecting the critical fracture aperture, a new experimental correlation for the critical fracture aperture was obtained as a function of the volume of the liquid bridge, contact angle and dimensionless bond number. In the stretching section of the liquid bridge, it is observed that with the movement of the plates, the critical fracture aperture increases with increasing the volume of the liquid bridge and the contact angle and decreasing the bond number, Weber number and capillary number. Also, in the simulation of flowing liquid droplets from the surface, the behavior of the flowing liquid droplets from the surface, which was done in the laboratory, was well predicted. The results of this study are useful for better understanding the stability of the liquid bridge in the fracture in different static and dynamic conditions, as well as the use of simulators such as COMSOL to investigate this phenomenon
  9. Keywords:
  10. Capillary Continuing ; Simulation ; Liquide Bridge ; Laboratary Study ; Fractured Reservoirs ; Gas-Oil Gravity Drainage

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