Technical Papers and Presentations

One of the most important criteria for evaluating chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes that use polymers is its rheological behaviour which in turn account for other physical effects of adsorption and resistance factors during polymer-rock interactions. However, complete knowledge of behaviour of polymer solution in porous media has not yet been fully gained. A computational fluid dynamics simulations implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics is used to simulate 1-D single-phase, non-elastic xanthan gum flow in geometries approximating formation pore throats. Simulation results show the degree of solution viscosity degradation at different inlet pressures and shear rates at varying pore constriction diameters. Results also show that numerical techniques can predict the performances of polymer solution applications in actual field operational conditions.