Experimentally-Based Empirical Foam Modeling

Abstract

This paper presents fine-scale numerical simulations and mathematical analysis of the empirical foam model for representing foam-surfactant flow in a vertical column of laboratory sand-pack based on two sets of experimental data conducted at variable total velocities and variable foam qualities.The empirical foam model of CMG-STASRS is used for parametric matching of laboratory data, and relevant foam parameters are calibrated.The paper discusses experimental setup, procedure and measurements to provide apparent foam viscosity data needed for foam modeling. In the first set of lab tests, foam quality is constant and the total fluid superficial velocity varies for foam shear thinning effect; while in the second tests, foam quality is varied at a fixed total superficial velocity to capture different flow regimes and foam dry-out characteristics.Employing an analytical method and 1-D numerical simulations of the foam flow in the sand-pack, the empirical foam model is tuned to the first data set of variable velocity and used to predict the second data set of variable quality as a consistency check.The model predictions for the second data set as well as the associated sensitivity analysis prove that the foam modeling procedure of this paper is unique and applicable for large-scale predictions.

Insights on Foam Transport from a Texture-Implicit Local-Equilibrium Model with an Improved Parameter Estimation Algorithm

“…Although we introduced apparent viscosity !"" to quantify foam strength, foam in porous media is modeled as a two-phase flow instead of single-phase because gas and liquid are transported at different velocities 21,36 . Phase separation occurs in the presence of permeability contrast 29,37 .…”

“…are equal to 1, foam obtains its maximum strength. A full description of the STARS TM foam model can be found in the literature 13,21,36 . This work only considers foam dependences on water saturation ( !…”

“…The higher capillary number corresponds to a greater viscous shear stress. However, the most appropriate expression for local capillary number remains controversial in the literature 12,26,36 . At least three methods exist to define !"…”

Foam front displacement in improved oil recovery in systems with anisotropic permeability

“…where dX D /dt D is given by equation (1). Substituting equations (9) and (10) and (12) into (1), and assuming t D ≤ O(1/κ v ), and retaining terms through to first order in κ v , the solution for X D becomes (in lieu of the Velde solution)…”

“…In order to exploit foam injection operations more effectively, there has been considerable effort in the petroleum engineering community to simulate the foam improved oil recovery process using a number of rather sophisticated computer models [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. An alternative approach introduced by Shan and Rossen [5], which has recently been dubbed pressuredriven growth [13], looks at a somewhat simpler phenomenological model.…”