Sharif Digital Repository

In this work, a new type of flooding system, "worm-like micelles", in enhanced heavy oil recovery (EOR) has been introduced. Application of these types of surfactants, because of their intriguing and surprising behaviour, is attractive for EOR studies. Fundamental understanding of the sweep efficiencies as well as displacement mechanisms of this flooding system in heterogeneous systems especially for heavy oils remains a topic of debate in the literature. Worm-like micellar surfactant solutions are made up of highly flexible cylindrical aggregates. Such micellar solutions display high surface activity and high viscoelasticity, making them attractive in practical applications for EOR. In this... 

Advanced reservoir characterization methods can yield geological models at a very fine resolution, containing 1011–1018 cells, while the common reservoir simulators can only handle much lower numbers of cells due to computer hardware limitations. The process of coarsening a fine-scale model to a simulation model is known as upscaling. Predicting the accuracy of simulation results over an upscaled grid with respect to the fine grid is highly important, as it can yield the optimum upscaling process. In this paper, permeability-based and velocity-based a priori error estimation techniques are proposed by introducing image processing-based comparison methods in the context of upscaling. The... 

Seismic performance and safety of a jointed arch dam, as an arch-shaped mass concrete structure, are investigated through the nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis. In this way, 12 proper ground motions are selected, each of them is scaled to 12 successively increasing intensity levels and applied to the dam. Three and seven contraction joints are inserted within the dam body, and stage construction is taken into account. Several main assumptions including dam–reservoir–foundation dynamic interaction, absorbing boundary conditions at the far-ends of the reservoir and foundation, and material and joint nonlinearities are considered. The failure modes of the dam are determined according to... 

The low salinity water injection has become one of the most important studies in the oil industry for improving oil recovery compared to conventional seawater injection. Thus, extensive studies have been conducted in carbonate and sandstone reservoirs to investigate how the physical properties of rocks and the chemical composition of fluids influence low salinity effect, while, the carbonate reservoir rocks requires more investigation of the effect of molecular and/or ionic interactions. In this experimental work, the effectiveness of various water flooding schemes in carbonate reservoir rock samples is investigated. In this regard, the oil recovery potential of seawater (SW), reservoir... 

Engineered water (EW) flooding is one of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in carbonate reservoirs. In this method, the wettability of reservoir rock is altered by controlling the amount of various ions in the injected brine. The thermodynamics of wettability is related to the surface interactions and stability of water film on a rock surface. It can be identified by calculating disjoining pressure isotherms. In this study, core flooding tests, contact angle and zeta potential measurements along with the disjoining pressure isotherm calculation by the DLVO theory were used to investigate the wettability alteration of dolomite rock. Four brines include reservoir formation water... 

Seepage analysis serves as one of the most significant stages in the design process of an embankment dam. In two-dimensional (2D) seepage analysis of embankment dams, little or no attention is paid to the widthwise flows from side abutments. Moreover, the role of grout curtain extensions into the side abutments and abutment material properties are inevitably neglected when performing seepage analyses in 2D plane. In this paper, two and three-dimensional (3D) models of a rock-fill dam are generated and several unsteady and steady state seepage analyses are performed using finite element method (FEM). The results obtained from 2D and 3D seepage analyses were compared with measurements from the... 

Recently, a renewed interest arises in the application of nanotechnology for the upstream petroleum industry. In particular, adding nanoparticles to fluids may drastically benefit enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and improve well drilling, by changing the properties of the fluid, rocks wettability alteration, advanced drag reduction, strengthening the sand consolidation, reducing the interfacial tension and increasing the mobility of the capillary trapped oil. In this study, we focus on roles of clay nano-particles on polymer viscosity. Polymer-flooding schemes for recovering residual oil have been in general less than satisfactory due to loss of chemical components by adsorption on reservoir... 

This paper represents a numerical study on the effects of landslide initial submergence and its geotechnical and rheological properties on the characteristics of landslide-generated waves (LGWs) and landslide deformation. A number of 117 numerical experiments are performed using a two-layer Coulomb Mixture Flow (2LCMFlow) model on a real-sized numerical flume as a simplified cross section of the Maku dam reservoir, located in the Northwest of Iran. Three different initial locations are considered for landslide representing a subaerial (SAL), a semi-submerged (SSL), and a submarine (SML) landslide. Based on the numerical results, the majority of SMLs and in some cases SSLs generate tsunami... 

This paper represents a numerical study on the effects of landslide initial submergence and its geotechnical and rheological properties on the characteristics of landslide-generated waves (LGWs) and landslide deformation. A number of 117 numerical experiments are performed using a two-layer Coulomb Mixture Flow (2LCMFlow) model on a real-sized numerical flume as a simplified cross section of the Maku dam reservoir, located in the Northwest of Iran. Three different initial locations are considered for landslide representing a subaerial (SAL), a semi-submerged (SSL), and a submarine (SML) landslide. Based on the numerical results, the majority of SMLs and in some cases SSLs generate tsunami... 

Controlling evaporation plays an essential role in arid and semi-arid water resources systems where it accounts for a considerable amount of reservoirs outflow. In this study, we have evaluated evaporation reduction efficiency of different kinds of self-assembled nano-thickness films. The films consist of six different combinations of stearyl and cetyl alcohols with additives such as jojoba oil, stearic acid, and calcium hydroxide. The study lasted from July to August and utilized two pairs of class A evaporation pans: one pair was semi-floating on Chitgar lake water surface while the other one was located on the shore. The experimental results showed that a monolayer containing 3:1 stearyl... 

Recorded ground accelerations at various locations of Karun III Dam during November 20, 2007, were recorded by an array of accelerometers located on the dam. In terms of amplitude and phase, these accelerations show non-uniformities in different elevations. In this paper, the effect of these non-uniform ground motions on the seismic response of the dam taking dam-reservoir-foundation interaction into account is investigated. The EACD-3D-2008 finite element program and ABAQUS Software are used for carrying out the seismic analyses. For this purpose, time histories of the earthquake accelerations are interpolated at nodal points located on the dam foundation interface. The analysis has been... 

Smart water flooding as a developing technique utilizes modified water chemistry in terms of salinity and composition to prepare the best-suited brine composition for a specific brine/oil/rock system to obtain higher oil recovery efficiency. Huge amount of unrecovered oil is expected to be remained in carbonate reservoirs; however, few research works on incremental oil recovery during smart water injection in carbonate cores at reservoir condition are reported. Several core flooding tests using one of the Iranian carbonate reservoir rock are conducted to check the effectiveness of smart water injection for more oil recovery efficiency. The results reaffirm the positive effect of sulfate ions... 

Dam failure can result in a catastrophic break followed by a ood wave, often with considerable loss of life or property. One of the main causes of dam failure is loss of shear strength and the existence of discontinuity within the foundation. Dynamic analysis of concrete dams usually considered concrete behavior to be nonlinear and the foundation rock is assumed to be linear. In this study, seismic analysis of a concrete gravity dam was conducted to investigate the effect of the foundation on the nonlinear response. A finite element model of a dam-reservoir-foundation was considered to properly model the foundation as well as dam body nonlinear behaviors. An elasto-plastic formulation was... 

Abutments of concrete arch dams are usually crossed by several joints, which may create some rock wedges. Abutment stability analysis and controlling the probable wedge movements is one of the main concerns in the design procedure of arch dams that should be investigated. For decades, the quasi-static method, due to its simple approach, has been used by most of dam designers. In this study, the dynamic method is presented and the obtained time history of sliding safety factors is compared with the quasi-static results. For this purpose, all three components of Kobe (1979) and Imperial Valley (1940) earthquakes are applied to the wedge, simultaneously, and the magnitude and direction of wedge... 

The development of density or turbidity currents causes serious problems for environmental hydraulics in reservoirs. The stream entered to a reservoir can carry sediments, nutrients and chemicals as density or turbidity currents. The fate of sediment and other substances transported by the current depends on the characteristics of the turbidity current itself, i.e. the velocity of fluid, the amount of mixing with reservoir water and the rates of sediment deposition and resuspension. These are important factors for water quality in reservoirs. A two-dimensional, depth-averaged, finite-volume numerical model is developed to study density currents, driven by non-cohesive sediments. The model... 

One of the most important concerns in designing an embankment dam is seepage analysis. Conventional seepage analyses of embankment dams are performed in two-dimensional (2D) space, in which the impacts of water flow lines seeping from the side abutments are ignored. This fact is especially important if the dam is constructed in a narrow valley. In addition, if the effects of existing underlain faults in the reservoir water discharge rate, under different loading conditions, are to be scrutinized, three-dimensional (3D) modeling of the dam for seepage analysis is inevitable. In this paper, the significance of three-dimensional seepage analyses is emphasized by making a 3D model of a real dam... 

Air-water two-phase flow usually occurs during a sudden rise in water level at a tunnel or during the falling of the water level at an upstream reservoir while entering the conduit. When this happens, different flow patterns are generated, due to the hydraulics of flow and fluid properties. An analytical/numerical model, based on the assumption of a rigid incompressible water column and a compressible air bubble, is derived, to simulate pressure fluctuation, void fraction, air/water flow rate and water velocity in a closed conduit, including water depth at the upper reservoir, due to air bubbles becoming trapped in the water, for the highest possible number of flow patterns. It is a... 

Real-time measurement of soil water pressure has been recognized as an essential part of investigating water ow in unsaturated soils. Tensiometry, amongst di erent measuring techniques, is a common method for direct evaluation of water pressure. However, the lower limit of measurable water pressure by a conventional tensiometer becomes even more limited by increasing its length in the vertical installation. This paper describes the development of a Vacuum-Re lled Tensiometer (VRT) for monitoring soil water pressure independent of installation depth. This is achieved by xing the distance between pressure sensor and ceramic cup together with incorporating an ancillary vacuum-re lling assembly... 

Real-time measurement of soil water pressure has been recognized as an essential part of investigating water ow in unsaturated soils. Tensiometry, amongst different measuring techniques, is a common method for direct evaluation of water pressure. However, the lower limit of measurable water pressure by a conventional tensiometer becomes even more limited by increasing its length in the vertical installation. This paper describes the development of a Vacuum-Refilled Tensiometer (VRT) for monitoring soil water pressure independent of installation depth. This is achieved by fixing the distance between pressure sensor and ceramic cup together with incorporating an ancillary vacuumre filling... 

One of the acceptable assumptions in engineering practice is vertical propagation of earthquake waves. When the source of earthquake is located very deep in the ground, this assumption is valid, but for sources located in shallow ground, it loses its viability. In this study, linear seismic analysis of a system of concrete dam-massed foundation-reservoir is performed under inclined earthquake excitation. Both P- and SV-type earthquakes are considered for the purpose of the seismic analysis. To consider the effects of inhomogeneous waves for the case of SV wave propagation, post-critical angles are also considered in the analysis. To investigate the effects of earthquake frequency content on...