Sharif Digital Repository

In this article, dynamic core flood experiments in miscible CO2 condition were carried out to investigate core damage due to asphaltene deposition. Carbonate and sandstone cores were used to study of effect of core characteristic on permeability and porosity reduction. The experimental results show asphaltene deposition preferentially in sandstone core type takes place in the first half of the core while in the carbonate one it occurs in the second half. In spite of asphaltene content measurement results (IP-143) that show higher asphaltene deposition in sandstone cores, permeability impairment compared to the carbonate one is severe. Also, permeability-porosity reduction models are affected... 

The permeability is one of the most important reservoir parameters and its accurate prediction is necessary for reservoir management and enhancement. Although many empirical formulas are derived regarding permeability and porosity in sandstone reservoirs [1], these correlations cannot be modified accurately in carbonate reservoir for the wells which are not cored and there is no welltest data. Therefore estimation of these parameters is a challenge in reservoirs with no coring sample and welltest data. One of the most powerful tools to estimate permeability from well logs is Artificial Neural Network (ANN) whose advantages and disadvantages have been discussed by several authors [2]. In this... 

In this work, asphaltene adsorption in a sandstone core sample under dynamic conditions and during miscible CO2 injection was studied using live oil sample which is close to real conditions in petroleum reservoirs. In order to investigate of damage in sandstone core sample by the deposited material such as asphaltene, the morphology analysis of sandstone core sample using scanning electron microscopic method was studied. Also analyses of the adsorbed material in sandstone core sample by Soxhlet extraction using an azeotrope mixture and with SARA method were performed. The experimental results show that by increasing the flow rate of injected CO2, the amount of asphaltene in retained material... 

Porosity and specific surface are two prominent factors in describing the hydraulic properties of porous media. Determination of these two important parameters leads to identify the capability of porous media to conduct the fluids. In the present study, a new relationship between porosity and specific surface of sandstones has been developed. Micro-CT data from 10 types of sandstones has been utilized in order to present a porosity-specific surface correlation. This correlation also contains the average grain radius of each rock obtained by image processing algorithms. Finally, the correlation is tested on the provided data to evaluate its precision. The simplicity and applicability of the... 

In this work, two-membrane distillation (MD) modes, direct contact MD, and sweeping gas MD were investigated for synthesized and real (Persian Gulf) seawater desalination. A commercial PTFE membrane with 0.22 μm pore size was characterized (using atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy) and was used for experiments. A multipurpose plate and frame MD module was used for desalination experiments. The effects of various operating conditions and MD module design, as well as feed type on the permeation flux have been studied. The feed temperature was found to be the most effective operating parameter. The flow rate in both sides of the MD module was found to be effective;... 

The morphology of symmetric and asymmetric membranes obtained by precipitation can be rationalized by thermodynamic and kinetic parameters. Such parameters which the former relates to thermodynamic effect and the latter controls the time of separation of the cast solution film immersing in the non-solvent bath from the glass plate were calculated as dimensionless parameters for further analysis. Phase diagram was used to consider the role of thermodynamic. The kinetic properties of the membranes could be investigated by the rate of mass transfer between solvent and non-solvent. By adding additives to the polymer solution the desire for becoming two phase and also viscosity of the solution... 

This paper considers Pressure Oscillation (PO) experiments for which we find the minimum experiment time that guarantees user-imposed parameter variance upper bounds and honours actuator limits. The parameters permeability and porosity are estimated with a classical least-squares estimation method for which an expression of the covariance matrix of the estimates is calculated. This expression is used to tackle the optimization problem. We study the Dynamic Darcy Cell experiment set-up (Heller et al., 2002) and focus on data generation using square wave actuator signals, which, as we shall prove, deliver shorter experiment times than sinusoidal ones. Parameter identification is achieved using... 

Reservoir heterogeneity has a major effect on the characterization of reservoir properties and consequently reservoir forecast. In reality, heterogeneity is observed in a wide range of scales from microns to kilometers. A reasonable approach to study this multi-scale variations is through fractals. Fractal statistics provide a simple way of relating variations on larger scales to those on smaller scales and vice versa. Simple statistical fractal models (fBm and fGn) can be useful to understand the model construction and help the reservoir structure characterization. In this paper, the fractal methods (fGn and fBm) have been applied to characterize and to estimate of reservoir properties.... 

Rock samples from the Asmary outcrop formation of the Ahwaz oil rich zone with a porosity of 16% and permeability of 1 md and MIS crude oil with an API value of 42.5 and moderate asphaltene content of 3%, were used to study the effect of the incubation time and flow rate of the displacing fluid in MEOR operations. Five species of rod shaped, gram positive, thermophile and facultative bacteria were isolated and purified from the crude. Due to the high sweep efficiency prevailing in the core flooding system, the effect of the displacing brine flow rate on the oil recovery efficiency was found not to be significant. On the other hand, a 100% increase in incubation time from 7 to 14 days... 

In this work, experimental studies were conducted to determine the effect of asphaltene deposition on the permeability reduction and porosity reduction of carbonate, sandstone and dolomite rock samples using an Iranian bottom hole live oil sample which is close to reservoir conditions, whereas in the majority of previous work, a mixture of recombined oil (a mixture of dead oil and associated gas) was injected into a core sample which is far from reservoir conditions. The effect of the oil injection rate on asphaltene deposition and permeability reduction was studied. The experimental results showed that an increase in the oil injection flow rate can result in an increase in asphaltene... 

New studies regarding the sorption of fluids by solids are published every day. In performance testing, after the sorbent has reached saturation, it is usually removed from the sorbate bath and allowed to drain. The loss of liquid from the sorbents with time is of prime importance in the real-world application of sorbents, such as in oil spill response. However, there is currently no equation used for modeling the unsteady state loss of the liquid from the dripping sorbent. Here, an analytical model has been provided for modeling the dynamic loss of liquid from the sorbent in dripping experiments. Data from more than 60 sorbent-sorbate systems has been used to validate the model. The... 

A comprehensive understanding of the role of reservoir heterogeneities induced by flow barriers and connate water on sweep efficiency of different EOR scenarios is rarely attended in the available literature. In this work, different miscible/immiscible EOR processes were conducted on various one-quarter five-spot glass micromodels incorporating small-scale flow barriers. Microscopic and macroscopic observations revealed the reduction of sweep efficiency, premature breakthrough of displacing fluids, the severity of fingering at displacement front which leaves a large amount of oil behind the flow barriers untouched, and significant increasing trend of oil recovery after breakthrough in the... 

In the present study, the morphology of asymmetric poly(vinylidene fluoride) blend membranes which were prepared by the phase inversion method is rationalized by comparing two non-dimensional number represent thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the prepared membrane. These two parameters change phase diagram and demixing rate between solvent and nonsolvent. TiO2 nanoparticles and polyvinylpyrrolidone were used as additives. Hansen solubility parameters of the components are calculated by Van Krevelen method. Furthermore, kinetic and thermodynamic properties of the prepared solutions are determined by drawing phase diagrams and controlling mass transfer rate during precipitation of... 

Filtrate and solid invasion from drilling fluids are two key sources of formation damage, and can result in formation permeability impairment. Typically, spurt invasion of mud solids causes the evolution of an external mud cake which tends to reduce further solids and filtrate influx. However, uncontrolled spurt and filtrate invasion are detrimental because they reduce the permeability of the formation. Mud composition, formation rock's permeability and porosity, and temperature can influence both spurt and filtrate invasion. The sizes of mud solids relative to the average pore size of a rock are also important in predicting the extent of mud invasion and permeability impairment. In this... 

In the present paper, the effect of Nano silica on mechanical properties and durability of concrete containing polypropylene fibers has been investigated. Here, the length and length to diameter ratio of used polypropylene fibers were considered to be fixed and equal to 18 mm and 600 respectively and the cement content was 479 kg/m3. The effect of fibers and Nano silica in four different percentages for each one at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 percent by volume for fibers and 3 percent for Nano silica in concrete with water to cement ratio of 0.33, 0.36, 0.4, 0.44 and 0.5 have been compared and evaluated. In total, more than 425 cubic and cylindrical specimens were made according to ASTM standards.... 

In this paper, a numerical model is developed based on the X-FEM technique to simulate the proppant transport and tip screen-out in hydraulic fracturing. The governing equations are based on the momentum balance and mass conservation of the fluid. The hydro-mechanical coupling between the fracture and surrounding porous medium is fulfilled through the weak form of the governing equations. The fluid inflow within the fracture is modeled using the one-dimensional mass conservation of the injected slurry and proppant along the fracture, in which the viscosity of the slurry is dependent on the proppant concentration. The transition from the Poiseuille to Darcy flow regime is incorporated into... 

Finite element analysis is an effective tool to evaluate the material properties of living tissue. For an interactive optimization procedure, the finite element analysis usually needs many simulations to reach a reasonable solution. The metamodel analysis of finite element simulation can be used to reduce the computation of a structure with complex geometry or a material with composite constitutive equations. The intervertebral disc is a complex, heterogeneous, and hydrated porous structure. A poroelastic finite element model can be used to observe the fluid transferring, pressure deviation, and other properties within the disc. Defining reasonable poroelastic material properties of the...