It
is proved that injecting CO2 to displace the residual
oils trapped in nanopores with water barriers can achieve the purpose
of improving the oil recovery. In the present work, we find that the
rupture of the water film has a significant effect on the velocity
of the displacement. At first, the whole displacement processes under
different water film thicknesses are fully demonstrated by snapshots
of molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the recovery factor
is directly related to the case whether the water film is ruptured.
The rupture time of the water film is a key factor in the displacement
process, which is greatly influenced by three parameters including
the water film’s thickness, the CO2 injection pressure,
and the depth of the dead-end pore. The simulation results are verified
by the method of dimensional analysis. Our study may help reveal the
effect of the water film rupture on residual oil displacement from
the nanoscale pores, and the results can provide new ideas on the
application of CO2 flooding in engineering.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.