Sharif Digital Repository

To have a deeper understanding of Hydraulic fracturing operation, in this study four important parts in this field was developed and simulated. In the first part, continuity and momentum equations for a single phase flow in a propagating penny-shaped fracture inside an impermeable matrix was revisited based on a fixed coordinate system. Its correctness was validated against experimental data and its features were compared with the well-known lubrication theory in analytical form. The new derived continuity equation caused the fracture tip to have a positive and finite pressure while, the conventional model predicted negative infinity for that. In the second part, Finite Volume method was... 

Determining the time of breakthrough of injected water is important when assessing waterflood in an oil reservoir. Breakthrough time distribution for a passive tracer (for example water) in percolation porous media (near the percolation threshold) gives insights into the dynamic behavior of flow in geometrically complex systems. However, the application of such distribution to realistic two-phase displacements can be done based on scaling of all parameters. Here, we propose two new approaches for scaling of breakthrough time (characteristic times) in two-dimensional flow through percolation porous media. The first is based on the flow geometry, and the second uses the flow parameters of a... 

The purpose of this study is to apply the governing equations of the theory of porous media with the concept of volume fractions to calculate the isotropic half-space responses subjected to a surface and asymmetric loading and to compare the responses with Biot’s theory. For this purpose, each of the components is first considered continuous and the equilibrium equations of mass and momentum for the solid and fluid phases based on the mixture theory are expressed. The concept of volume fractions and the effect of interaction between the two phases, distinguish these equations from the equations of the continuum theory. Thus, the governing coupled partial differential equations of the theory... 

Porous medium is a material consisting of a solid matrix with an interconnected void. A polymer is a large molecule composed of many repeated subunits, known as monomers; Polyurethane is a type of polymer which has many uses. The aim of this research project is to investigate the effective factors in polyurethane polymer injection and the behavior of this material during the foaming in cavities with different soil porosities (0.15 < φ < 0.4). Parameters such as thermal boundary conditions and the soil material that could be effective in solidification of polyurethane are analyzed, numerically using FLUENT software. A simplified model for foaming is presented in this study which can be used... 

A 2D simulation has been carried out to study the effect of magnetic field on heat transfer and pressure drop of nanofluid flowing through a pipe filled with porous medium. The nanofluid flow is modeled as a single-phase flow, and Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer equation is employed to model fluid flow in porous media. A constant uniform heat flux was imposed on the walls of the cylinder, and the values of Darcy number, Hartmann number, and volume fraction of the nanoparticles were selected as 0.1, 200, and 0.2, respectively. Effects of parameters such as Reynolds number, the material of the porous medium (conductivity and porosity), and material of nanofluids have been investigated in the... 

The present work illustrates the results of an experimental study of ferrofluid flow in a tube subjected to a constant heat flux on its wall and filled with permeable material under the effect of magnetic field. The aim of this project is investigating the enhancement of heat transfer and obtaining a uniform temperature distribution inside the pipe. In order to achieve this, a porous medium with a porosity of 0.39 and ferrofluid with volume fractions of 0.6, 1.0 and 1.5 are used simultaneously, in the presence of magnetic field. The experiments are held for four different Reynolds numbers of 147.1, 167.3, 184.3 and 205.1. Also, four various modes of the oscillatory magnetic field are applied... 

Nowadays, application of ultrasonic wave technology as a novel method of enhancing oil recovery and also gas an oil well stimulation is prevailing. Not only this method is environment friendly, but also it is economic. Although the application of this method is proved to be of outstanding positive influences in field operations, it suffers from lack of knowledge about the main governing mechanisms and also there are few mathematical models describing the process. In this study it is intended to investigate the role of ultrasonic waves on rate of recovery and the total recovery from porous media. A model is proposed which can predict the recovery at different times of operation. The results... 

In the present study, mixed-convective heat transfer of nanofluids in a vertical rectangular channel partially filled with open-cell metal foam has been investigated experimentally and numerically. Al2O3–H2O nanofluids with different concentrations were synthesized and their stability was inspected with UV-Vis spectroscopy. The outlet temperature and pressure drop were measured for different nanofluid flow rates (i.e., Reynolds number values). In the numerical section, a two-dimensional volume-averaged form of the governing equations was used. The velocity and temperature profiles were obtained using finite difference method. The Brinkman–Forchheimer extended Darcy model and the... 

Asphaltene precipitation and deposition may cause severe problems during different stages of oil recovery. All proposed remediation techniques have proven costly and not highly effective, so prevention becomes the most beneficial way to counteract the problem. Revelation of the deposition mechanism and determination of the parameters are necessary in order to devise reliable prevention strategies.This work presents results of the effect of lean gas and CO2 injection process as well as natural depletion on dynamic asphaltene precipitation and deposition. In addition sets of experiments were performed in the same porous media using STO and solvent (with different volume ratios) to investigate... 

Liquid flow between two porous blocks in fractured reservoirs can occur through capillary continuity or re-imbibition. Studies have shown that capillary continuity via liquid bridges formed in horizontal fracture increases oil recovery from reservoirs. The critical fracture apertures for stability of liquid bridges, shape of curvature and fracture capillary pressure for prediction of fractured reservoir performance remain as controversial topics. Experimental results have shown that critical fracture aperture is a function of surface wettability and critical Bond number. Capillary pressure of fracture might be a positive or negative value caused by liquid bridges. The best method for... 

Recent studies in nanotechnology field have shown this technology could solve many challenges and needs in oil and gas industry. As yet, many applications of nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery have been reported. One of the most important applications is wettability alteration due to presence of nanoparticles in injecting fluid, which has recently been studied by several research groups. These studies indicate that, presence of nanoparticles in injecting water would improve oil recovery. However, there is no adequate information about the mechanisms affecting fluid flow in reservoir rock and its mathematical modeling.The aim of this project is to evaluate the effect of injection of... 

Fractured reservoirs constitute a major portion of world’s petroleum reservoirs. Gravity drainage is the controlling production mechanism in these reservoirs. Thus, investigation of performance and oil production in fractured models has been the subject of many researches. Despite the considerable number of experimental and modeling studies in this area, the method of scale-up in single or multi block models is not broadly investigated. This work is divided into two experimental and modeling sections. For the experimental study, free fall gravity drainage experiments in synthetic single or multi block porous media were performed in order to investigate effects of different parameters... 

In this work, a pore-scale analysis of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) flow, transport, dissolution, and mobilization in heterogeneous and homogeneous porous media was presented. First, dissolution processes and distribution of NAPL phase were investigated using micromodel experiments. The tests were conducted at different injection rates in NAPL-saturated porous media using distilled water, surfactant, and nanoparticles-assisted surfactant. Changes in residual NAPL volume and interfacial area were measured using image analysis method to calculate the mass transfer coefficient, k, and the lumped mass transfer rate coefficient, K. Based on the experimental results, empirical Sherwood... 

In this research we aim to find enhance oil recovery mechanisms involved in nano-bio material injection by micro model apparatus which has not been studied before. Especially for injection in heavy oil and shaly porous media that forms most of heavy oil reservoirs. To this end, microscopic images from injection of nano-bio materials to shaly patterns have been taken and analyzed to find the process mechanism. Also amount of enhance oil recovery in different conditions like type of microbe forming bio material, nano-bio material concentration and type of flow pattern (shale characteristics including length, direction and distance from injection and production wells) will be studied.Three... 

Investigation about Hydraulic Fracturing phenomenon in fractured porous medium which was occurred by in-situ fracture pressure upon the crack wings, owes the fact that creating enormous damages. However, it might include advantages such as increasing the rate of crude oil production from deep and high pressure/ high temperature reservoirs. On account of the fact that, existence of cracks and natural discontinuities and heat sources such as boundary of geo thermal reservoirs in porous mediums it is undeniable fact. Also, cross sectioning hydraulic fracturing cracks with natural cracks it is an obvious impact. Actually, investigation and analyzing the break throw of HF crack with natural... 

Modeling the water flow in cohesive fracture is a fundamental issue in the crack growth simulation of cracked concrete gravity dams and hydraulic fracture problems. Discontinuities in porous materials such as concrete, soil and rock have important role on the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of a multiphase system. The creation and propagation of discontinuities, such as cracks in a multi-physics system, lead to a complex non-linear coupled problem with continuous topological changes in the domain.In this study, a mathematical model is presented for for the analysis of dynamic fracture propagation in the saturated and semi-saturated porous media. The solid behavior incorporates a discrete... 

The swelling phenomenon in the porous media causes many problems in various engineering issues, including foundation construction and oil and gas extraction. For this reason, in the last few decades, flow modeling in reactive porous media and investigation of coupled hydro-chemo-mechanical problems have attracted a lot of attention. On the other hand, despite the simplifications, porous media have a heterogeneous structure, and the numerical modeling of these heterogeneities directly increases the computational costs. A suitable method for modeling heterogeneous problems is the computational homogenization method. In this method, the problem is solved in two scales in a correlated manner and... 

In the real engineering problems, the existing materials in the nature or human-made materials, contain different heterogeneities from the view of small scale. Reinforced composite materials and porous media containing grains or micro-cracks are some examples of these materials. Due to the large amount of these heterogeneities as well as the small size, direct modelling of these micro-structures requires extremely high computational and memorial cost. Also, the equivalent models introduced in the literature, have strong limitations and therefore, cannot capture accurate behavior of the material. Hence, multiscale methods have been proposed in order to model these heterogeneous media with... 

Gravity drainage is known as the main mechanism for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in naturally fractured reservoirs. In fact, this mechanism is active in gas invaded zone. In spite of numerous researches in the area, the literature suffers from the lack of a comprehensive model for controlled gravity drainage. Calculating the accurate oil recovery and ultimate recovery factor is inevitable for a successful field development plan as well as enhancing oil recovery. To obtain the accurate values of the aforementioned parameters, an accurate model to solve nonlinear differential equations is necessary. To this end, COMSOL, the well known commercial CFD software, has been used for the modeling of...