EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION AND HIGH RESOLUTION SIMULATOR OF IN-SITU COMBUSTION PROCESSES

Accurate simulation of in-situ combustion processes is computationally very challenging because the spatial and temporal scales over which the combustion process takes place are very small. In this third quarterly report of our DoE funded research, we continue the discussion of the design of a new simulation tool based on an efficient Cartesian Adaptive Mesh Refinement technique that allows much higher grid densities to be used near typical fronts than current simulators. Also, we show preliminary results for the one-dimensional in-situ combustion simulator, which will serve as the foundation for the development of a three-dimensional simulator that can handle realistic permeability heterogeneity. On the experimental side, the combustion kinetic apparatus and the combustion tube are now fully operational, and a series of successful combustion tube runs were performed that clearly showed additives allow combustion of poorly reactive oils. We have also started scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis to investigate the sand-clay-salt mixtures that are used for combustion in which we focus on grain sizes, shapes, orientations, characteristic inter-structures, and element analysis