Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils, Vol.55, No.6, 790-799, 2020
Methodology for Estimating Strength and Elasticity of Granular Profile Control Agents Used in ASP water Flooding
A new method for estimating the strength of granular profile control agents during ASP water flooding was proposed considering the transport behavior for granular profile control agents in the reservoir. The strength of granular profile control agents (size over 80 mesh) passing through the sieve (diameter 0.1 mm) is determined by the value of the breakthrough pressure. The strength of profile control agent particles (size 20-60 mesh) is determined by the breakthrough pressure value, measured on a sieve with a diameter of 0.3 mm. Breakthrough pressure values of 8 types of granular profile control agents were determined under various experimental condition (for particle expansion time of 24 hours, 120 hours, and 30 days, respectively). The results show that the longer the expansion time of granular profile control agents, the smaller the strength. According to the results of a study conducted on a granular profile control agent of the same type (of example: QC5050) with different particle sizes (80-120 mesh, 80 mesh, and 20-40 mesh), it can be concluded that the larger the size of the particles of the profile control agents, the greater the value of the corresponding breakout pressure. A new parameter has been introduced - a rebound coefficient - for evaluating elasticity of granular profile control agents. The rebound coefficient was measured for 8 types of granular profile control agents at different pressures (2, 4, 6, and 8 MPa). The results show that the number of samples with a rebound ratio higher than 20% reached more than 70% in 64 experiments conducted on 8 samples. A negative correlation relationship between the rebound coefficient and the breakthrough pressure was determined, and a method was proposed for estimating the strength and elasticity of the granular profile control agents considering the influence of the rebound coefficient and the breaking pressure through the sieve.
Keywords:granular profile control agents;estimation of strength and elasticity;rebound coefficient;breakthrough pressure