Sharif Digital Repository

The main purpose of this paper is modeling and simulation of in-situ releasing of smart nano-sized core-shell particles at the water-oil interface during polymer flooding. During the polymer flooding process, when these nano-particles reach the water-oil interface, migrate to the oil phase and the hydrophobic layer of them dissolves in this phase. After dissolution of this protective nano-sized layer, the hydrophilic core containing a water-soluble ultra high molecular weight polymer diffuses back into the water phase and with dissolving in this phase, dramatically increases viscosity of flooding water in the neighborhood of the water-oil interface. In this study, two different... 

Engineered water (EW) flooding is one of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in carbonate reservoirs. In this method, the wettability of reservoir rock is altered by controlling the amount of various ions in the injected brine. The thermodynamics of wettability is related to the surface interactions and stability of water film on a rock surface. It can be identified by calculating disjoining pressure isotherms. In this study, core flooding tests, contact angle and zeta potential measurements along with the disjoining pressure isotherm calculation by the DLVO theory were used to investigate the wettability alteration of dolomite rock. Four brines include reservoir formation water... 

The low salinity water injection has become one of the most important studies in the oil industry for improving oil recovery compared to conventional seawater injection. Thus, extensive studies have been conducted in carbonate and sandstone reservoirs to investigate how the physical properties of rocks and the chemical composition of fluids influence low salinity effect, while, the carbonate reservoir rocks requires more investigation of the effect of molecular and/or ionic interactions. In this experimental work, the effectiveness of various water flooding schemes in carbonate reservoir rock samples is investigated. In this regard, the oil recovery potential of seawater (SW), reservoir... 

The outcome of the classic percolation approach is several power-law curves with some universal (critical) exponents. Here, the universality means that these power laws as well as their critical exponents, which control the global properties of a system, are independent of its details. Classic percolation considers the connectivity between two lines and two faces at opposite sides of a system in 2- and 3D problems, respectively; whereas, in practice (e.g. hydrocarbon formations), production and injection wells are represented by points (in 2D areal models) and lines (in 3D models). This study presents the results of Monte Carlo simulations of a 2D percolation model wherein the connection... 

The effectiveness of secondary recovery methods in reservoir development studies depends on the knowledge about how fluid-carrying regions (i.e. good-quality rock types) are connected between injection and production wells. To estimate reservoir performance uncertainty, comprehensive simulations on many reservoir model realisations are necessary, which is very CPU consuming and time demanding. Alternatively, we can use much simpler and physically based methods such as percolation approach. Classic percolation assumes connectivity between opposite 2-D faces of a 3-D system; whereas, hydrocarbon production is achieved through active wells that are one-dimensional lines (e.g. vertical,... 

The ideal simulator for Endoscopic Sinus and Skull Base Surgery (ESSS)training must be supported by a physical model and provide repetitive behavior in a controlled environment. Development of realistic tissue models is a key part of ESSS virtual reality (VR)-based surgical simulation. Considerable research has been conducted to address haptic or force feedback and propose a phenomenological tissue fracture model for sino-nasal tissue during surgical tool indentation. Mechanical properties of specific sino-nasal regions of the sheep head have been studied in various indentation and relaxation experiments. Tool insertion at different indentation rates into coronal orbital floor (COF)tissue is... 

The standard percolation theory uses objects of the same size. Moreover, it has long been observed that the percolation properties of the systems with a finite distribution of sizes are controlled by an effective size and consequently, the universality of the percolation theory is still valid. In this study, the effect of power law size distribution on the critical exponents of the percolation theory of the two dimensional models is investigated. Two different object shapes i.e., stick-shaped and square are considered. These two shapes are the representative of the fractures in fracture reservoirs and the sandbodies in clastic reservoirs. The finite size scaling arguments are used for the... 

During the endoscopic sinus and skull base training surgeries, the haptic perception of tool-tissue interaction and even transitions and ruptures in the tissues are fundamental which should be taken into account in a robotic control scheme. However, this problem is extremely complex given the nature and the variety of tissues involved in an ESS procedures. In this article, ex-vivo indentation and relaxation experiments associated with an offline model estimation of the interaction between tissues and a surgical tool are presented. The estimated parameters of the modified Kelvin-Voigt model are then used to provide a realistic tool-tissue interaction dynamic model. Finally, the principle of a... 

Background: The development of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) training simulators for clinical environment applications has reduced the existing shortcomings in conventional teaching methods, creating a standard environment for trainers and trainees in a more accurate and repeatable fashion. Materials and methods: In this research, the validation study of an ESS training simulator has been addressed. It is important to consider components that guide trainees to improve their hand movements control in the orbital floor removal in an ESS operation. Therefore, we defined three tasks to perform: pre-experiment learning, training, and evaluation. In these tasks, the critical regions introduced in... 

Complicated sedimentary processes control the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities. This serves to make the nature of the fluid flow in the hydrocarbon reservoirs immensely complex. Proper modeling of these heterogeneities and evaluation of their connectivity are crucial and affects all aspects of fluid flow. Since the natural variability of heterogeneity occurs in a myriad of length scales, accurate modeling of the rock type connectivity requires a very fine scheme, which is computationally very expensive. Hence, this makes other alternative methods such as the percolation approach attractive and necessary. The percolation approach considers the hypothesis that a reservoir can... 

Complicated sedimentary processes control the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities. This serves to make the nature of the fluid flow in the hydrocarbon reservoirs immensely complex. Proper modeling of these heterogeneities and evaluation of their connectivity are crucial and affects all aspects of fluid flow. Since the natural variability of heterogeneity occurs in a myriad of length scales, accurate modeling of the rock type connectivity requires a very fine scheme, which is computationally very expensive. Hence, this makes other alternative methods such as the percolation approach attractive and necessary. The percolation approach considers the hypothesis that a reservoir can... 

Estimating available hydrocarbon to be produced during secondary oil recovery is an ongoing activity in field development. The primary plan is normally scheduled during early stage of field's life through master development plan studies. During this period, due to the lake of certain data, estimation of the field efficiency is usually based on rules of thumb and not detailed field characterization. Hence, there is a great motivation to produce simpler physically-based methodologies. The minimum necessity inputs of percolation approach make it a useful tool for foration performance prediction. This approach enables us to attain a better assessment of the efficiency of secondary recovery... 

The petroleum industry tends to paint an optimistic picture with respect to future petroleum availability. In order to anticipate demand, the size of connected volume of hydrocarbon of fields needs to be known. During the early stage of life of a reservoir, due to the lake of certain data, connected volume of hydrocarbon is usually based on analogues or rules of thumb and not detailed reservoir modeling. Therefore, there is a great incentive to produce physically-based methodologies to make an estimation of connected volume of hydrocarbon. Percolation theory is used to estimate the connected volume of hydrocarbon very fast. Furthermore, the result has been validated against areal field... 

Reservoir characterization, especially during early stages of reservoir life, is very uncertain, due to the scarcity of data. Reservoir connectivity and permeability evaluation is of great importance in reservoir characterization. The conventional approach to addressing this is computationally very expensive and time consuming. Therefore, there is a great incentive to produce much simpler alternative methods. In this paper, we use a statistical approach called the percolation theory, which considers a hypothesis wherein the reservoir can be split into either permeable (i.e. sand/fracture) or impermeable flow units (i.e. shale/matrix), and assumes that the connectivity of permeability... 

The connectivity of high conductivity pathways in geological formations depend on the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities that may appear on various length scales. Appropriate modeling of this is crucial within in hydrology and petroleum systems. The approach taken in this study is to use percolation theory to quantify the connectivity, hydraulic conductivity, and breakthrough time behavior between an injector and a producer within such systems. In particular, a three-dimensional overlapping sandbody model is considered which assumes that the geological formation can be split into either conductive flow units (i. e., good sands) or non-conductive units (i. e., poor sands). The... 

Oil reservoirs are very complex with geological heterogeneities that appear on all scales. Proper modeling of the spatial distribution of these heterogeneities is crucial, affecting all aspects of flow and, consequently, the reservoir performance. Reservoir connectivity and conductivity evaluation is of great importance for decision-making on various possible development scenarios including infill drilling projects. This can be addressed by using the percolation theory approach. This statistical approach considers a hypothesis that the reservoir can be split into either permeable (good sands) or impermeable flow units (poor sands) and assumes that the continuity of permeability contrasts... 

The connectivity of high conductivity pathways in geological formations depend on the spatial distribution of geological heterogeneities that may appear on various length scales. Appropriate modeling of this is crucial within in hydrology and petroleum systems. The approach taken in this study is to use percolation theory to quantify the connectivity, hydraulic conductivity, and breakthrough time behavior between an injector and a producer within such systems. In particular, a three-dimensional overlapping sandbody model is considered which assumes that the geological formation can be split into either conductive flow units (i. e., good sands) or non-conductive units (i. e., poor sands). The... 

Reservoir characterization, especially during early stages of reservoir life, is very uncertain, due to the scarcity of data. Reservoir connectivity and permeability evaluation is of great importance in reservoir characterization. The conventional approach to addressing this is computationally very expensive and time consuming. Therefore, there is a great incentive to produce much simpler alternative methods. In this paper, we use a statistical approach called the percolation theory, which considers a hypothesis wherein the reservoir can be split into either permeable (i.e. sand/fracture) or impermeable flow units (i.e. shale/matrix), and assumes that the connectivity of permeability... 

We investigate the effects of anisotropy on the finite-size scaling of connectivity and conductivity of continuum percolation in three dimensions. We consider a system of size X×Y×Z in which cubic bodies of size a×b×c are placed randomly. We define two aspect ratios to request anisotropy then we expect that the displacement of average connected fraction P (averaged over the realizations), about the isotropic universal curves will be a function of the two aspect ratios. This is accounted by considering an apparent percolation threshold in each direction which leads to 50% of realizations connecting in that direction. We find the aspect ratios' dependency of the apparent threshold and...