Aspects of non-Newtonian flow and displacement in porous media

Technical Report · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10134743· OSTI ID:10134743

Shah, C; Yortsos, Y C

The rheology of many heavy oils has been shown to be non-Newtonian, Bingham plastics being one manifestation of heavy oil flow. In EOR applications, non-Newtonian fluids such as low concentration polymer solutions, emulsions, gels etc. are simultaneously injected to increase the viscosity of driving agents that displace oil. Such rheologically complex fluids are used to improve sweep efficiencies, divert displacing fluids and block swept zones. The present study has been undertaken to understand the flow of non-Newtonian fluids through porous media. The work considered involves the numerical (pore network) modeling of both single and multiphase flow of power-law and Bingham plastic fluids in network-like porous media. We consider aspects of both single- and multi-phase flow and displacement. Section 2 describes elementary aspects of non-Newtonian flow and some simple models for porous media. Viscoelastic effects in the flow of non-Newtonian fluids are also discussed. The section includes a brief literature review on non-Newtonian flow in porous media. Section 3 describes single-phase flow.

• Research Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-90BC14600
• OSTI ID: 10134743
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/14600--41; ON: DE93000128
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300
DRILLING AND PRODUCTION
FLUID FLOW
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MULTIPHASE FLOW
POROUS MATERIALS
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING