Areal sweep efficiency of pseudoplastic fluids in a five-spot Hele-Shaw model
Areal sweep efficiency of oil displacement by enhanced- viscosity water exhibiting pseudoplastic behavior was measured in a 5-spot Hele-Shaw model using various polymer concentrations and flow rates. The pseudoplasticity of polymer solutions and the velocity distribution in the 5- spot pattern bring about a condition under which the mobility ratio between the displacing and the displaced fluids cannot be assigned a single value. Instead, the movement of the displacement front is governed by local mobility ratios which are also time-dependent. The areal sweep at breakthrough with poylmer solutions was poorer than the sweep obtained with Newtonian fluids of comparable viscosity. However, the areal sweep at 1 PV throughput was greatly improved compared with floodwater without polymer. It was also demonstrated that, even after the oil-cut had declined to a low value during a regular waterflood switching to polymer flood would efficiently sweep out the oil remaining in the model. (32 refs.)
- OSTI ID:
- 6382808
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 42. annual SPE of AIME fall meeting, Houston, TX, USA, 1 Oct 1967; Related Information: SPE-1849
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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