Sharif Digital Repository

Fluid flow modeling in porous media has many applications in waste treatment, hydrology and petroleum engineering. In any geological model, flow behavior is controlled by multiple properties. These properties must be known in advance of common flow simulations. When uncertainties are present, deterministic modeling often produces poor results. Percolation and Random Walk (RW) methods have recently been used in flow modeling. Their stochastic basis is useful in dealing with uncertainty problems. They are also useful in finding the relationship between porous media descriptions and flow behavior. This paper employs a simple methodology based on random walk and percolation techniques. The... 

Scale formation is one of the major problems in oilfields. Removal of scales is a difficult process due to their relative hardness and low solubility. Therefore it is valuable to find a method which can remove damages caused by scales. Ultrasonic radiation is known have the sufficient energy to remove the scales. Our purpose is to investigate the role of ultrasound on permeability increments due to scale removal. Some experiments were carried out to find these effects and observed that ultrasound has increased volumetric mass transfer, concentration and solubility limits. We also worked on a model presented by Tahmasebi et. al[2010] and applied changes on it to make it able to predict... 

Nowadays "as everywhere in the world", so much attention is drawn to performing safety and HSE management rules in Iran. Considering the long life of oil and it's relevant industries in Iran (since 1908, first oil well in Middle East, Masjid Soleyman), many units with more than 50 years old are still in operation. This situation posed special problems in performing safety and HSE regulations that some of them are communal among these units. This paper reveals the result of industrial projects, collecting numerous technical checklists in such units and author's experiences in recent years in Iran, which is aimed to announce some of these major problems and also present solutions for them.... 

Despite the numerous experimental studies, there is a lack of fundamental understanding about how the local and global heterogeneity control the efficiency of polymer flooding. In this work a series of water and polymer injection processes are performed on five-spot glass micromodels which are initially saturated with the crude oil at varying conditions of flow rate, water salinity, polymer type and concentration. Three different pore structures in combine with different layer orientations are considered for designing of five different micromodel patterns. It has been observed that the oil recovery of water flooding is increasing with the salinity concentration, for the ranges studied here.... 

During transient tests, both pressure and temperature are changed depending on downhole flow rate. In gas producing wells, Joule-Thomson cooling and frictional heating effects are the main dynamic factors causing flowing bottomhole temperature to differ from the static formation temperature at that depth. When a gas well is shut in, JT cooling effect is vanished and this causes a sharp increase in sandface temperature. As effect of wellbore storage ends, wellbore temperature gradually cools down due to heat conduction with near wellbore region. This paper demonstrates a new technique for using temperature transient data in gas wells in order to determine end of wellbore storage. Also, effect... 

The knowledge of the conductivity across the reservoir that is based on the swept fraction controls the recoverable rates of the hydrocarbon in the secondary displacement processes. Most of the time, we need a fast estimation of the conductivity for decision making during field development. Percolation theory is a very useful tool to get this goal. According to this fact that the results of this method are universal, they could be used widely. In this study connectivity and conductivity percolation models are developed and the universal exponents for connectivity and conductivity in fractured reservoir as well as their dependency on the correlation length are investigated. For L< ξ the... 

The capability level of rotary as well as first generation drilling operation could not be matched for deeply drilling programs. To reach that deep, the increasing in drill string length could also cause an additional constraint on hydraulic performance. The operation of slim hole drilling has significant potential to reduce well costs. This cost might be savings are especially important with increased demand for reduced capital finance under current economic conditions in the Iranian oil and gas industry. This savings achievement could be caused by use of smaller drilling rigs, work over rigs, reduced casing size, reducing requirement for drilling consumables and other costs associated with... 

The prediction of flow behavior in porous media can provide useful insights into the mechanisms involved in CO2 sequestration, petroleum engineering and hydrology. The multi-phase flow is usually simulated by solving the governing equations over an efficient model. The geostatistical (or fine grid) models are rarely used for simulation purposes because they have too many cells. A common approach is to coarsen a fine gird realization by an upscaling method. Although upscaling can speed up the flow simulation, it neglects the fine scale heterogeneity. The heterogeneity loss reduces the accuracy of simulation results. In this paper, the relation between heterogeneity loss during upscaling and... 

MEG regeneration and injection unit regenerates aqueous MEG. The main goal of this unit is approaching desired MEG concentration whereas MEG loss via removed water is a big issue. Circulating glycol is polluted with Ca++ and Mg++ which forms carbonate scale and causes plugging of pipe lines, filters, lean/rich exchanger, still column packings and reboiler tube bundle and decreases their efficiency, consequently increases MEG loss via top product. Different alternatives exist according to similar experiences around the world. Using specific criteria and AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method priority of these alternatives has been found. Results are as following: 1. Increasing number of... 

The knowledge of the conductivity across the reservoir that is based on the swept fraction controls the recoverable rates of the hydrocarbon in the secondary displacement processes. Most of the time, we need a fast estimation of the conductivity for decision making during field development. Percolation theory is a very useful tool to get this goal. According to this fact that the results of this method are universal, they could be used widely. In this study connectivity and conductivity percolation models are developed and the universal exponents for connectivity and conductivity in fractured reservoir as well as their dependency on the correlation length are investigated. For L< ξ the... 

Nanofluids viscosity is one of the most important thermophysical properties in nanofluids usage especially in chemical and petroleum engineering applications. So it is highly desirable to predict the viscosity of nanofluids accurately. Experimental measurements are impossible in most situations and present models are not comprehensive and efficient especially for high temperature, high volume concentration and high viscosity values. In this study, a new correlation has been developed based on the comprehensive database of water based Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2 and CuO nanofluids viscosity data found in literature. The proposed correlation uses temperature, nanoparticle size, nanoparticle volumetric... 

In this study a new iterative algorithm is developed to evaluate dispersivity in fracture and matrix, distinctly. The novelty of proposed algorithm is using mathematical model of solute transport in fractured porous media coupled with experimental data iteratively. A fractured glass micromodel has been designed to visualize the interaction between fracture and matrix during displacement of n-Decane by n-Octane at constant rate. The similarity between numerical and experimental model has been enhanced by reducing the assumptions which were applied in previous related studies. The iteration is performed on velocity components of solute transport and longitudinal as well as transversal... 

Simplicity of manufacturing and high reliability of airlift pumps have promoted these pumps to be used in different industries, such as petrochemical and oil industries, especially in oil recovery from dead wells. One of the main parameters affecting the performance of these pumps is two-phase flow regime in the main pipe of the pump. In this research, experimental data are utilized to investigate the influence of the flow regimes on the performance of an airlift pump. The data are obtained for air-water two-phase flow in a vertical pipe with a diameter of d = 50. mm and an aspect ratio of L/d = 120. In this study, the gas liquid upward two-phase flow regime in the upriser pipe is... 

Asphaltene precipitation during natural depletion and miscible gas injection is a common problem in oilfields throughout the world. In this work, static precipitation tests are conducted to investigate effect of pressure, temperature and gas type and concentration on asphaltene instability. Three different oil samples are studied under reservoir conditions with/without nitrogen and methane injection. Besides applying common thermodynamic models, a new scaling equation is presented to predict asphaltene precipitation under HPHT gas injection. Published data from literature are also used in model development. The scaling approach is attractive because it is simple and complex asphaltene... 

hydraulic fracturing is one of the most prestigious mechanical methods which used as a facile production rate improvement method. Application of this method is in wells with low productivity index. Hydraulic fracturing efficiency depends on various factors, like fracture geometry, fluid composition and stress distribution. But some of them would be ignored. Such as fracture geometry which is neglected due to non-gravity and lack of investigation of DFN statistical population assumption. In this paper we develop a more comprehensive methodology based on fracture geometry, we aim to model one of the gas reservoirs which is naturally fractured, by using well-known commercial software. Based on... 

This work concerns with experimental and analytical investigation of role of ultrasonic wave radiation in relative permeability of both wetting and non-wetting phases in a free gravity drainage process in porous media under the influence of ultrasonic wave. Glass beads ranged from 70 to 100 mesh sizes were packed and used in the tests. The working fluids consist of distilled water, kerosene and Doroud and Paidar crude oils as wetting and air as non-wetting phase. The measured oil recovery data along with Hagoort (1984) backward methodology were used to determine and to compare the relative permeability of wetting phases in presence and absence of ultrasonic radiation. In addition, the... 

In this study a new iterative algorithm is developed to evaluate dispersivity in fracture and matrix, distinctly. The novelty of proposed algorithm is using mathematical model of solute transport in fractured porous media coupled with experimental data iteratively. A fractured glass micromodel has been designed to visualize the interaction between fracture and matrix during displacement of n-Decane by n-Octane at constant rate. The similarity between numerical and experimental model has been enhanced by reducing the assumptions which were applied in previous related studies. The iteration is performed on velocity components of solute transport and longitudinal as well as transversal... 

Colloidal Gas Aphron (CGA) are finding increasing application in fields of science and engineering because of their distinctive characteristic. As interest in the application of CGA based fluids grows and in order to select the best procedure for using them in successful petroleum engineering operations, there is a need to gain a better understanding of the factors that affect their properties and behavior. This article discusses the rheological characterization, stability analysis and filtration properties of CGA based fluids for three bio-polymers and two ionic surfactant. The stability and filtration analysis were investigated with the static drain rate technique and API filtration tests,... 

Production logging is used to evaluate wells production performance. Interpretation of production log data provides velocity profile and contribution of each zone on total production. In multi-phase flow conditions, production log interpretation can be challenging since producing fluids do not have similar densities and travel with different speed depending on fluids properties and wellbore deviation. Production log interpretation in multi-phase producing wells requires identifying downhole flow regimes and determining velocity profile for each phase. There are different flow regimes and velocity models available, which are being used in production log interpretation to determine wells flow... 

Petroleum production often involves simultaneous flow of three immiscible fluids through porous rock formations. The objective of this work is to experimentally measure two and three phase relative permeabilities and to evaluate the existing relative permeability prediction models. We used typical Berea sandstone with refined mineral oil, distilled water and nitrogen gas. The measurements were carried out at temperature of 23°C and pressure of 800 psi. Two and three phase relative permeability measurements were obtained using the steady state technique. The three-phase experiments are conducted in the imbibition mode. The flow rates of brine and gas were increased gradually and the oil rate...