TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe applications of foam are 3-D on a field scale. However, most previous research focuses only on properties of foam in 1-D. Experiments were performed in 3-D, and the compositional reservoir simulator UTCHEM was modified to predict foam flow in 3-D.The 3-D experiments demonstrated that, under similar experimental conditions, the mobility of foam in a 3-D tank is greater than that in a 1-D column. They also showed that foam greatly increases lateral gas distribution along the bottom of the tank and the average gas saturation for both homogeneous and heterogeneous packings with the effects being significantly larger in the latter case. The reservoir simulator UTCHEM was modified for foam flow. The foam simulation parameters were measured in 1-D sand columns and the simulator was modified to match the 1-D and 3-D experiments. The proposed model successfully history matched the homogeneous and heterogeneous 3-D sand tank experimental results for average gas saturation, gas injection rate, gas distribution and pressure profile along the tank diagonal 6 inches from the bottom.The results of this study represent an advance in understanding of foam flow in 3-D. The simulator could be used to design a foam process in 3-D.

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