Miscible Displacements in Heterogeneous Core Systems: Tomographic Confirmation of Flow Mechanisms

Abstract

A series of stable and unstable floods has been carried out in a well-characterized, heterogeneous concentric core assembly in order to study predicted recovery mechanisms in such systems. A combination of effluent analysis from the separate layers in the core and computer simulation was used to establish the detailed flows which were subsequently confirmed using computer x-ray tomographic (CT} scanning. Good agre~ment has been obtained between experiment and theory for unit mobility, and viscous floods in which the respective roles of transverse dispersion and viscous crossflow have been clarified. Some of the main qualitative features found in the unstable displacement (viscous fingering} experiments have also been reproduced using fine grid simulations. CT scanning has been shown to be extremely useful for studying flow mechanisms in systems of this type.

In-Situ Saturation Measurements Improve Analysis and Interpretation of Laboratory Miscible and Immiscible Displacement Processes

“…9 -11 The primary goal of much of the flow-visualization work reported has been to improve our understanding of the fundamentals of fluid-displacement mechanisms. These studies [12][13][14] often use outcrop rock and/or refined fluids for convenience.…”