Foam in porous media is a fascinating fluid both because of its unique microstructure and because its dramatic influence on the flow of gas and liquid. A wealth of information is now compiled in the literature describing loam generation, destruction, and transport mechanisms. Yet there are conflicting views of these mechanisms and on the macroscopic results they produce. By critically reviewing how surfactant formulation and porous media topology conspire to control foam texture and flow resistance, we attempt to unify the disparate viewpoints. Evolution of texture during foam displacement is quantified by a population balance on bubble concentration, which is designed specifically for convenient incorporation into a standard reservoir simulator. Theories for the dominant bubble generation and coalescence mechanisms provide physically based rate expressions for the proposed population balance. Stone-type relative permeability functions along with the texture-sensitive and shear-thinning nature of confined foam complete the model. Quite good agreement is found between theory and new experiments for u'ansient foam displacement in linear cores.

Foam in porous media is a fascinating fluid both because of its unique microstructure and because of its dramatic influence on the flow of gas and liquid. A wealth of information is now compiled in the literature that describes. The literature contains conflicting views of the mechanisms of foam generation, destruction, and transport, and on the macroscopic results they produce. By critically reviewing how surfactant formulation and porous media topology conspire to control foam texture and flow resistance, we attempt to unify these disparate viewpoints. Evolution of texture during foam displacement is quantified by a population-balance on bubble concentration that is designed specifically for convenient incorporation into a standard reservoir simulator. Theories for the dominant bubble generation and coalescence mechanisms provide physically based rate expressions for the proposed population-balance. Stone-type relative permeability functions, along with the texture-sensitive and shear-thinning nature of confined foam, complete the model. Quite good agreement is found between theory and new experiments for transient foam displacement in linear cores.

No abstract

No abstract