Numerical simulation on ferrofluid flow in fractured porous media based on discrete-fracture model
| Autor: | Haojun Xie, Jun Yao, Xiaolong Yin, Jianguang Zhang, Tao Huang, Zhaoqin Huang |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
010302 applied physics
Ferrofluid Materials science 47.11.df Computer simulation Physics QC1-999 ferrofluid flow 47.54.bd General Physics and Astronomy 02 engineering and technology Mechanics 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology Discrete fracture model 01 natural sciences enhance oil recovery discrete fracture model Flow (mathematics) numerical simulation 0103 physical sciences 47.65.cb 0210 nano-technology Porous medium fractured porous media |
| Zdroj: | Open Physics, Vol 15, Iss 1, Pp 370-378 (2017) |
| ISSN: | 2391-5471 |
| DOI: | 10.1515/phys-2017-0041 |
| Popis: | Water flooding is an efficient approach to maintain reservoir pressure and has been widely used to enhance oil recovery. However, preferential water pathways such as fractures can significantly decrease the sweep efficiency. Therefore, the utilization ratio of injected water is seriously affected. How to develop new flooding technology to further improve the oil recovery in this situation is a pressing problem. For the past few years, controllable ferrofluid has caused the extensive concern in oil industry as a new functional material. In the presence of a gradient in the magnetic field strength, a magnetic body force is produced on the ferrofluid so that the attractive magnetic forces allow the ferrofluid to be manipulated to flow in any desired direction through the control of the external magnetic field. In view of these properties, the potential application of using the ferrofluid as a new kind of displacing fluid for flooding in fractured porous media is been studied in this paper for the first time. Considering the physical process of the mobilization of ferrofluid through porous media by arrangement of strong external magnetic fields, the magnetic body force was introduced into the Darcy equation and deals with fractures based on the discrete-fracture model. The fully implicit finite volume method is used to solve mathematical model and the validity and accuracy of numerical simulation, which is demonstrated through an experiment with ferrofluid flowing in a single fractured oil-saturated sand in a 2-D horizontal cell. At last, the water flooding and ferrofluid flooding in a complex fractured porous media have been studied. The results showed that the ferrofluid can be manipulated to flow in desired direction through control of the external magnetic field, so that using ferrofluid for flooding can raise the scope of the whole displacement. As a consequence, the oil recovery has been greatly improved in comparison to water flooding. Thus, the ferrofluid flooding is a large potential method for enhanced oil recovery in the future. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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