Sharif Digital Repository

A droplet placed on the boundary of two solids with different wettabilities will move to the more wettable part. This is a well-known phenomenon and has been extensively used in a variety of processes and applications ranging from biological systems and ink jet printing to the commercial lab-on-a-chip. Because of its importance, many studies are conducted around this phenomenon. The difference between the equilibrium contact angles of the droplet on the two parts gives rise to an interfacial driving force which moves the droplet. Such a motion is not continuous as the droplet slides to the more wettable area, the driving force diminishes and consequently the droplet stops. A non-stop motion... 

Drop penetration into the capillary tube, as a classical problem, has been studied over 100 years. But there are a few studies that investigate forced impregnation of capillary tubes, which has major application in coating, inkjet printing and rain drop penetration into the soil, have been made. A comprehensive numerical investigation on millimeter droplet impact dynamics on a thick capillary tube with micrometer sized pore is conducted and validated against experimental data. This work is extended to oblique impact of drops into pores and normal impact on nanoscaled pores. We apply the finite volume numerical method to solve the time-dependent governing equations of continuity, momentum in... 

This research was done for feasibility evaluation and understanding correct microbial enhanced oil recovery(MEOR) procedure for carbonate reservoirs. With the aim of cost reduction and possible activation of smart water mechanisms, sea water used as a base for MEOR process. Two biosurfactant producing strains were isolated from oil contaminated water and soil, and one halotolerant strain, from sea water. Optimization of biosurfactant yield was conducted and two new definitions for optimum point, by considering economical and technical facts, were proposed. Partial characterization of produced biosurfactant was carried out through FTIR and NMR analysis and the produced biosurfactant was... 

increased cohesion up to 4H pencil. Results of immersion test in water showed stability of coatings. Polarization test in naphtha and water mixture for stainless steel, copper and aluminum meshes demonstrated 98.89%, 86.25% and 66.6% protection efficiency respectively. In order to study of oil and water separation efficiency, mixtures of water and naphtha with different content of naphtha were used. Separation test for 200μm St.St mesh in different slopes demonstrated that changing of slop increase separation efficiency up to 95.5% for water and up to 100% for naphtha. Separation test for meshes with different pore size demonstrated that meshes with small pore size are more appropriate for... 

The discrete fracture network and continuous fracture network are among the most widely used methods to model naturally fractured reservoirs. Each method faces particular limitations. The recently introduced recovery curve method (RCM) is believed to meet the limitations of the common methods. In the RCM the recovery curves are used to more realistically describe matrix-fracture interactions. It is necessary to present appropriate solutions to apply the RCM in the real fileds and also to evaluate it based on the historical production data. In this work at first, the basics of the RCM are presented then with a simple column model this method is validated. Then in a column model and a field... 

Matrix acidizing operation is one of the popular methods of well stimulation in the oil and gas industry which is used to remove near wellbore damage, increase the permeability, hence improve the production rate from the formation. Hydrochloric acid is used in the carbonate reservoirs to remove formation damage and create wormhole deep in the rock. It has been shown that with the proper operating design, significant improvement in the production rate can be obtained. A successful acid operations involves the proper selection of the candidate wells, identify the type of formation damage, stimulation method selection, correct design acidizing scenario, implementation of the technique and... 

One of the most common methods for determining elastic moduli of rocks and porosity is acoustic velocity log. The elastic moduli of reservoir rock are widely used in geomechanical modelling, borehole stability and hydraulic fracture design. Carbonate oil reservoirs are known for heterogeneity and anisotropic nature. Therefore correlation of acoustic velocity and rock properties are generally challenging. Rock’s shear modulus is very important during saturating of sample with pore fluid because assumed it is independent of pore fluid type. However due to the several fluid-solid interaction mechanisms such as velocity dispersion, surface energy reduction and viscous coupling, shear modulus... 

One the basic challenges during drilling of both vertical and horizontal wellbores is due to mud filtrate invasion into the formation. Addition of nanoparticles to composition of drilling fluid has been recognized as a measure of control and reduction of filtrate invasion. Despite notable advances in formulation of nano-enhanced drilling fluids, effects of surface wettability of nanoparticles on their performance have not been studied with any precision. Moreover, return permeability of a grain packed porous media after extreme invasion by mud filtrate has not been experimentally measured in a radial system, yet. The last but not least, Generation and development of mud cake opposite the... 

In recent years, application of silica nanoparticles for wettability alteration of reservoir rocks as an effective approach in enhancing oil recovery from petroleum reservoirs is introduced. However, in this area, lack of fundamental studies to provide a clear understanding about the interaction between these nanoparticles and carbonate rocks (as the predominant reservoir rocks in the world and Iran), which is of particular importance, is sensed. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to present a mechanistic investigation about the interaction of silica nanoparticles (the most used nanoparticles) with carbonate rock from theoretical and experimental viewpoints. To better... 

Wettability of reservoir rock is one of the effective parameters in determining the mechanisms of production and consequently the amount of residual oil inside the porous media. In addition, the salinity of injected water is important factor in the recovery of reservoir oil in waterflooding.On the other hand, the role of the hysteresis on the residual oil saturation as well as the flow functions such as relative permeability curves is very important. In this project, the effects of reservoir wettability and injected water salinity on the hysteresis and residual oil saturation in two-phase water-oil flow systems are studied. Core-scale experiments were carried out using sandpacks and were... 

During all operations in oil and gas reservoirs, it is possible to cause formation damage. These damages can greatly reduce the rate of production. One of the major damages that can seriously affect the performance of a reservoir is the damage caused by drilling fluid. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the main mechanisms of formation damage caused by water-based drilling fluid using a glass micromodel for the first time. An accurate understanding of the mechanisms of formation damage can provide a good understanding of the selection of the type and concentration of materials used, as well as appropriate methods to control and eliminate damages. for controlling the drilling fluid... 

Oil and gas reservoirs in various parts of the world have declined over time, despite a high percentage of oil. Due to the increasing need for hydrocarbon resources, the need for more cost-efficient harvesting methods and less environmental damage is felt. Injection of saline water is one of the most cost-effective ways of harvesting due to the need for no expensive additives. On the other hand, microscopic glass modeling can be used to better understand and understand the performance of saline water at the microscopic scale. In this study we have been able to visualize the effective factors in infusion of saline water. Improved interfacial tensile and particle migration in kaolin-coated... 

It is aimed in this study to numerically investigate the effect of contact angle on the heat transfer coefficient in oil-water two-phase flow. For this purpose, the finite element method (FEM) is used to solve the unsteady Navier-Stokes and energy equations. The level set method is also used to capture the interface between the phases. In the first part of the study, two-phase flow of the water and calibration oil is considered in a T-junction geometry at contact angles of 5°, 40°, and 75°. It is observed that the flow patterns formed in the microchannel depend on the initial flow condition which results in the hysteresis phenomenon. Investigating the effect of wall contact angle on the... 

Many of oil reservoirs in Iran that are fractured, do not have high Recovery Factor (RF), therefor Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods are exerted in them. In fractured reservoirs, due to high capillary pressure in matrix and low amount of it in fracture, the wetting phase tends to imbibe to the matrix from the fracture. Altering the wettability of reservoir rock from Oil-Wet (OW) to Water-Wet (WW) enables the injected water to imbibe to matrix and sweep its oil. Also reducing oil/water IFT turns oil to small droplets, helps them to pass narrow pores and be produced. In one of the new EOR methods called chemical EOR, chemical additives are injected to the reservoirs along with water to... 

In order to investigate the effect of molecular-structural properties of asphaltene fraction on changes in wettability and flow of crude oil in the porous medium, four crude oil samples from oil fields in southern Iran were tested ;To know the characteristics of crude oil, molecular-structural properties of asphaltene fraction and the effect of asphaltene fraction on the wettability properties of surface, Experiments such as crude oil density and viscosity measurement, crude oil hydrocarbon analysis, asphaltene extraction with standard IP-143 method, elemental analysis and metal content, gel permeation chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, interaction between rock and asphaltene.... 

As fossil fuels are still the world's most important source of energy, as well as the maturity of most of the world's oil reservoirs, there is a need for enhanced oil recovery methods to meet the world's increasing oil demands. MEOR methods are new and promising methods that are still in the research and development stage. One of the MEOR methods is the use of biosurfactants, which increase the oil recovery by two mechanisms: 1) reducing the interfacial tension between water and oil and 2) changing the wettability of the rock. In this study, the performance of two glycolipid biosurfactants, rhamnolipid and sophorolipid, in increasing oil recovery has been investigated. Initially, surface... 

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... 

Wettability is the cause of many interactions today and is definitely effective in almost all processes where liquid and solid phases are in contact. Wetting controls by surface engineering can accelerate the process in the industry or improve the quality of daily life. Therefore, the fabrication of complex surfaces with a specific purpose and different wettability has attracted the attention of researchers. In this thesis, silica nanoparticles were synthesized to create roughness and reduce contact between surfaces and liquids at first. Then, using chemical compounds to reduce the surface energy, a transparent (94.20%) superhydrophobic and oleophobic coating was created on the glass. The... 

Hydrogen storage in porous subsurface formations, such as aquifers or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs because of their high storage capacity, has gained momentum as a promising approach to balance the renewable energy supply and demand. However, the poor understanding of hydrogen flow dynamics in porous media is the main obstacle to the development and widespread application of underground hydrogen storage (UHS). For example, the main uncertainty is lack of detailed understanding of hydrogen flow dynamics in the natural porous media which leads to the unknown volume of recoverable hydrogen for this cyclic process. In this research, by developing a visual microfluidic apparatus to handle... 

During all operations in hydrocarbon reservoirs, there is a possibility of formation damage. These damages can reduce the production of fluids from reservoir. One of the major damages that can seriously affect the performance of a reservoir is the damage caused by drilling fluid. The main purpose of this research is to study the main mechanisms of formation damages when using oil-based drilling fluids and fixing or preventing these damages. Once the mechanisms are identified, it is tried to cure the damages but without acid-washing. The alternative method is surfactant-washing which is a surfactant-brine injection. This injection has been done for the first time. This study helps to industry...