Model of Pressure Drop Separation during Aqueous Polymer Flow in Porous Media

D. C. Raharja [1], R. E. Hincapie [1], M. Be [1], C. L. Gaol [1], L. Ganzer [1],
[1] Clausthal University of Technology, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
发布日期 2016

Aqueous polymers used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application is considered a complex fluid. It can exhibit Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behavior depending on the velocity or the stresses that it is submitted during the flooding process. Therefore, the polymer flooding project requires a detailed understanding of chemical and physical process occurred in the porous subsurface reservoir, particularly polymer flow behavior while flowing through the porous media. Due to Non-Newtonian flow behavior of polymer solutions, pressure drop occurred during polymer flow in porous media can be differentiated in shear pressure drop and elongation pressure drop. The main objective of this research is the COMSOL Multiphysics® implementation to numerically solve the pressure drop calculation by considering Non-Newtonian flow behavior of aqueous polymer solutions.