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Toward A Mechanistic Understanding of Re‐Infiltration in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs with Surfactant‐Aided Gravity Drainage Process
Author(s) -
Davoudi Behrouz M.,
Assareh Mehdi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of surfactants and detergents
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1558-9293
pISSN - 1097-3958
DOI - 10.1002/jsde.12448
Subject(s) - infiltration (hvac) , drainage , wetting , petroleum engineering , pulmonary surfactant , geology , chemistry , geotechnical engineering , composite material , materials science , ecology , biology , biochemistry
Surfactant‐aided gravity drainage is an improved oil recovery technique for water‐invaded zone in fractured carbonate reservoirs, which are mostly oil‐wet or mixed‐wet rocks. The re‐infiltration mechanism in water‐invaded zone has a considerable effect on oil vertical movement in gravity drainage processes. In this work, a mechanistic understanding of re‐infiltration in surfactant‐aided gravity drainage, in comparison to oil–water gravity drainage is presented using an experimentally and numerically validated model. A column model is constructed from three matrix blocks. These blocks are separated from each other by horizontal fractures. A storage tank is considered on top of the model to store depleted oil from matrix blocks. The stacked‐blocks model for re‐infiltration is validated and verified to simulate water and chemical flooding using a mesh independency study and experimental flooding data in a composite core experiment. Using this model, several analyses are performed to investigate effects of rock and fluid properties, rock saturation functions, wettability alteration, surfactant adsorption, and capillary continuity on re‐infiltration.