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    Pore-scale Modeling and Simulation of Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSWF) with OpenPNM

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Abdollahi, Saeed (Author) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor) ; Ayatollahi, Shahabodin (Supervisor) ; Sadegh Nejad, Saeid (Co-Supervisor)
    Abstract
    The Low salinity water flooding is one of the important methods of secondary and tertiary oil production in which many expert petroleum-production engineering working on it in recent two decades. There are some basis mechanisms for low salinity method presented in the literatures including fine migrations, alkaline flooding, multicomponent ionic exchange, electrical double-layer expansion and pH-driven wettability alteration. The main approach is generating low salinity mechanism especially wettability alteration in OpenPNM framework. OpenPNM is a python base framework developed by Jeff Gostick for porous media modeling. OpenPNM has paved the way for extracting pore network models (PNM) from... 

    Pore-Scale Investigation of Polymer Enhanced Low Salinity Water flooding EOR

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Posht Panah, Mohammad Reza (Author) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor) ; Rostami, Behzad (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) is a relatively new EOR method in which low salinity or modified ionic composition water is injected into the reservoir to alter its wettability toward a more water-wettable state to accelerate oil recovery. Ease of field deployment and relatively low cost, as well as laboratory results confirming the positive effect of this method in improving the oil recovery factor, have made this technique attractive in the oil industry.Despite the many advantages of this method, overcoming the mixing between low and high salinity water which occurs due to a high mobility ratio between these two fluids is essential because it negatively affects the efficiency of LSWF.... 

    Investigation of Interface Phenomena in Low Salinity/Smart Waterflooding by Applying Molecular Dynamics Simulation

    , Ph.D. Dissertation Sharif University of Technology Badizad, Mohammad Hassan (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahab (Supervisor) ; Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein (Supervisor) ; Koleini, Mhammad Mehdi (Co-Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Low salinity/smart waterflooding is simple to apply and a promising enhanced oil recovery method in which ion-tuned saltwater is injected into subsurface oil reservoirs. Many aspects of this operation, in particular those pertaining to nano-scale, are not yet fully understood. The present dissertation is an attempt to shed light on the microscopic properties and behavior of rock/brine/oil interfaces throughout low salinity/smart waterflooding. Several simulations were carried out for oil/brine and calcite/brine categories each containing various ions and hydrocarbons compounds. The surface contribution of non-functional oil compounds (aromatics and aliphatics) near brine medium was... 

    Experimental Investigation and Modeling of Flow ّunction Variation in Enhanced oil Recovery Using Low Salinity/Smart Water Injection in a Carbonate Reservoir

    , Ph.D. Dissertation Sharif University of Technology Farhadi, Hamed (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahaboddin (Supervisor) ; Fatemi, Mobin (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) as an efficient enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique is proved to affect both, fluid-fluid and rock-fluid interactions to potentially release the trapped oil from the porous rock. Despite more than one decade of extensive research works on the low salinity water effect (LSWE), there are still many parameters to be studied for very complex cases. Therefore, in the first part of the experimental study of the dissertation, a systematic investigation on the effect of the initial wetting state (water-wet or oil-wet) of pure calcite is conducted to study the importance of fluid/fluid and fluid/rock interactions for LSWE investigation. In the case of initially... 

    Investigation of Low Salinity Waterflooding Predictive Capability and the Development of a Tool for Screening Candidates

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Golmohammadi, Meysam (Author) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor) ; Ayatollahi, Shahab (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Among different enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, low salinity waterflooding (LSWF) has been attractive to researchers because of its relative simplicity and lower environmental problems compared to other conventional EOR methods. Numerous researchers have attempted to find the main cause of the low salinity effect (LSE). According to previous studies, several experimental techniques have been proposed for predicting LSE and screening potential field candidates. However, there is a lack of a systematic investigation of all (or even some of) the methods to compare and determine their LSE predictive capability. Predictive capability development is essential because it saves costs and time... 

    Pore-scale Simulation of the Effect of Fluid/fluid and Rock/fluid Interactions During Water Injection on the Residual Oil Distribution and Hysteresis

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Ebrahimi Nejad, Mehdi (Author) ; Fatemi, Mobeen (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Low salinity water injection is one of the new and important methods of enhancing oil recovery. Experimental studies show the fact that the change in water salinity affects the interfacial properties of water-oil (Fluid-fluid interactions) And the change in wettability that represents the porous media (Rock-fluid interactions) is effective for Oil-recovery. Recently, progress have been made in simulating the process of injecting low-salinity water into the field or core dimensions. However, the simulation of the low salinity water injection process has been much less studied considering the fluid / fluid and fluid / rock interactions at the pore scale. The purpose of this study is to... 

    Prediction of Breakthrough and Oil Production in Secondary Recovery Process using Percolation Concepts

    , Ph.D. Dissertation Sharif University of Technology Shokrollahzadeh Behbahani, Sara (Author) ; Masihi, Mohsen (Supervisor) ; Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Determining the time of breakthrough of injected water is important when assessing waterflood in an oil reservoir. Breakthrough time distribution for a passive tracer (for example water) in percolation porous media (near the percolation threshold) gives insights into the dynamic behavior of flow in geometrically complex systems. However, the application of such distribution to realistic two-phase displacements can be done based on scaling of all parameters. Here, we propose two new approaches for scaling of breakthrough time (characteristic times) in two-dimensional flow through percolation porous media. The first is based on the flow geometry, and the second uses the flow parameters of a... 

    Low Salinity Water Assisted by Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Mechanistic Study and Spontaneous Imbibition Tests

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Heidari, Mehdi (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahabodin (Supervisor) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques have become of the main priorities of the oil industry during the high oil price era. It is interesting to note that the common method to increase production from reservoirs is the water injection method, which recovers a very low amount of oil from the oil-wet matrices due to the lack of water imbibition. Previous studies have shown that changing the wettability of rock would critically increase the oil recovery efficiency. This could be achieved by the low-salinity water injection method. In recent years, extensive studies have been conducted on this technique to evaluate its effectiveness for various types of oil reservoirs. Simultaneous injection... 

    Evaluation of the Impact of Rock Heterogeneity on the Efficiency of Engineered Salinity Water Flooding

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Toupchian, Amin (Author) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor) ; Ayatollahi, Shahaboddin (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) is one of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods that can be applied in both secondary and tertiary recovery techniques. Some reports indicate no incremental oil recovery associated with this method, and the reason can be associated with the binary and tertiary interactions between oil-brine-rock (OBR) systems. In some OBRs, the initial conditions are not favourable in terms of initial wettability. One of the key factors is the local rock heterogeneities in permeability and mineralogy which can affect LSWF performance because the microscopic and macroscopic heterogeneities can impact the flow pattern of the injected water, oil displacement efficiency, and... 

    Micromodel Investigation of the Non-Monotonic Effect of Injection Water Salinity on Wettability and Oil Recovery

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Karimpour Khamaneh, Mehran (Author) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Based on numerous laboratory and field evidence, low-salinity waterflooding or engineered salinity waterflooding can lead to enhanced oil production. According to the literature, the mechanisms involved in this process can be divided into two general categories: fluid-fluid interactions and solid-liquid interactions. These mechanisms are caused by intermolecular and electrostatic forces at the rock and fluid interfaces. The most important controlling factor of the electrostatic forces is the concentration of ions at/near fluids-rock interface. Therefore, improving the concentration of ions causes a shift in wettability toward a more water-wetting state, eventually leading to increased oil... 

    Study the Effect of Specific Salt Ions on Interfacial Tension of Water (Lowsalinity/Smart) and Reservoir Fluid in Surface Tension Reducing Materials Flooding by Molecular Dynamic Simulation

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Zeighami, Amir Reza (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahabodin (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Water injection is known as one of the most efficient and affordable techniques to displace the oil in the reservoirs. To increase oil recovery efficiency through water injection operation, recently low salinity water injection or water containing a certain amount of effective ions (engineered/low salinity water) is proposed. Besides, improving this technique is also adopted in the oil industry using certain chemicals like surfactants to change the interfacial tension or rock wettability for more oil recovery. In order to study and model the mechanisms involved during surfactant flooding, molecular dynamics simulation is utilized here as a novel technique. The advantage of this method over... 

    Core-scale Mechanistic Simulation of Engineered Salinity Waterflooding Using Bond-Product-Sum Method

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Almasian, Pourya (Author) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Considering the world's diminishing oil reserves, as well as the growing demand for oil and energy consumption, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques are becoming increasingly important in the attempt to improve oil production. Engineering salinity waterflooding has gained widespread attention and popularity in the last two decades due to its environmental friendliness, lack of expensive additives, low operating costs, and ease of use as an oil extraction process. The goal of this study is to use an innovative method to develop a mechanistic approach model that simulates and forecasts the mechanism and performance of the engineered water flooding process. Wettability alteration, the most... 

    Pore-scale Simulation of Trapping Phenomena and Hysteresis Effect in Porous Media

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Tabibnejad Azizi, Mehdi (Author) ; Fatemi, Mobeen (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    So far, many studies have been carried out on the core-scale regarding the effects of hysteresis on the macro-scale properties of systems including fluids and porous rock, however, many issues related to the physics of the problem (especially regarding the way fluids are distributed and the trapping of the non-wetting phase) at the pore-scale need further investigation. In the process of multiphase fluid flow in porous media, hysteresis refers to the dependence of the results of the fluids’ displacements on the history of fluid saturation and the direction of saturation changes (increasing or decreasing). The first step to investigate the hysteresis effect is to determine the amount of fluid... 

    Microscopic Investigation of the Effect of Low Salinity Waterflooding on Asphaltene Precipitation and Deposition Using Microfluidic Method

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Salari, Amir Hossein (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahabodin (Supervisor) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Water injection, as one of the conventional methods to increase the oil recovery factor has always been at the center of research works for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). The conducted studies show that by controlling the amount and type of ions in the injected water, the recovery efficiency can be improved. In the meantime, most of the investigations are focused on the interaction between water/rock/oil to trace the wettability alteration. However, these interactions especially between the injected water and the oil phase, would lead to change of surface charge distribution of the reservoir rock. Besides, this effect can change some of the characteristics of the fluid phases, especially in... 

    Water-flooded On-line Reservoir Management Using Multi-variable Multi-model Predictive Controllers

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Prrrang, Sahar (Author) ; Pishvaie, Mahmoud Reza (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    High efficiency and low-emission fuel cells have the capacity to replace fossil fuels for energy supply concerns. Solid oxide fuel cells operate in relatively high temperature and have power plant applications. Hence, they are acquainted to be coupled with cycle gas turbine to reduce the cost and increase the overall system efficiency. The control of these hybrid systems is so important. Due to the system nonlinearity and having more than one controlled variable, its control with classic methods would be difficult. The model based predictive control is used as an alternative to mitigate these difficulties. In addition to their high performance, their extension to the multivariate case would... 

    Study of Industrial Wastewater as Low-Salinity Water for Enhanced Oil Recovery

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Mohammadi, Hossein (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahaboddin (Supervisor) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Considering the water tensions, especially in the Middle East, water resources for the implementation of water-based EOR methods are shown to be critically limited. Water sources such as industrial wastewater hold great potential to be used for this purpose due to their significant available volume and the need for their disposal because of environmental regulations. In this research, the potential of injecting industrial wastewater, as low-salinity water, in an Iranian carbonated oil reservoir has been thoroughly investigated by conducting core-scale experiments. In this regard, we also developed a guideline for designing various types of experiments to use this "unconventional" injection... 

    Investigation of Ionic Diffusion and Mixing Phenomena in Polymer-Enhanced Low-Salinity Waterflooding Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Abdolmaleki, Amir Hossein (Author) ; Ayatollahi, Shahaboddin (Supervisor) ; Mahani, Hassan (Supervisor) ; Esmaeilbeig, Mohammad Amin (Co-Supervisor) ; Pourkhiabani, Nahid (Co-Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Various studies have confirmed that water salinity and its composition significantly affect the efficiency of the waterflooding process. Field-scale operation of low-salinity water injection has been proven to be a cost-effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method which is also compatible with the environmental regulations. Although this method has satisfactory results, it faces some challenges, such as in-situ mixing of the injection low-salinity water with the saline water in the host reservoir. The salinity of the injected water increases, as it contacts the high-salinity reservoir brine in the pores. This phenomenon significantly impairs the efficiency of this technique, and increases... 

    Experimental and Modeling Study of Controlled Salinity Water Injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery from one of Iranial Oil Reservoirs

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Shojaei, Mohammad Javad (Author) ; Ghazanfari, Mohammad Hossein (Supervisor) ; Masihi, Mohsen (Co-Advisor)
    Abstract
    From previous years, water injection was considered as one of the most common methods for enhanced oil recovery. But recently much attention has been paid on the use of low salinity water (LSW) as an enhanced oil recovery fluid. The main mechanism that causes improve oil recovery is wettability alteration to a more water wet state. The change observed in recovery factor during LSW flooding induced from changes in relative permeability and capillary pressure when different levels of salinity are used. However, a few researchers tried to evaluate how macroscopic flow functions depend on the salinity of injected water. To this end, a series oil displacements by water performed on sandstone rock... 

    Experimental Study of LSW Injection in Fractured Porous Media: Fracture Geometrical Properties at Pore Scale

    , M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Mahmoudzadeh Zarandi, Atena (Author) ; Masihi, Mohsen (Supervisor) ; Fatemi, Mobeen (Supervisor)
    Abstract
    Enhancing oil production from fractured reservoirs is challenging. The flow characteristics observed in naturally fractured reservoirs are complicated due to interaction between the two different flow domains: fracture and matrix. Spontaneous imbibition is one of the most important recovery processes in water-wet fractured reservoirs. Oil cannot be spontaneously produced from oil-wet rocks, unless the capillary pressure barrier between fracture conduits and matrix is overcome. The flow characteristics in fractured systems thus relate to the wettability of the rocks. Low salinity water injection has been widely studied as a method of enhancing oil recovery in recent years. However, its impact... 

    A priori error estimation of upscaled coarse grids for water-flooding process

    , Article Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering ; Volume 94, Issue 8 , 2016 , Pages 1612-1626 ; 00084034 (ISSN) Khoozan, D ; Firoozabadi, B ; Sharif University of Technology
    Wiley-Liss Inc 
    Abstract
    Advanced reservoir characterization methods can yield geological models at a very fine resolution, containing 1011–1018 cells, while the common reservoir simulators can only handle much lower numbers of cells due to computer hardware limitations. The process of coarsening a fine-scale model to a simulation model is known as upscaling. Predicting the accuracy of simulation results over an upscaled grid with respect to the fine grid is highly important, as it can yield the optimum upscaling process. In this paper, permeability-based and velocity-based a priori error estimation techniques are proposed by introducing image processing-based comparison methods in the context of upscaling. The...