Al-Yaari Abdullah, Ling Chuan Ching Dennis, Sakidin Hamzah, Sundaram Muthuvalu Mohana, Zafar Mudasar, Haruna Abdurrashid, Merican Aljunid Merican Zulkifli, Azad Abdus Samad
Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia.
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Applied Science, Thamar University, Dhamar 00967, Yemen.
Materials (Basel). 2023 Aug 2;16(15):5414. doi: 10.3390/ma16155414.
Two-phase Darcy's law is a well-known mathematical model used in the petrochemical industry. It predicts the fluid flow in reservoirs and can be used to optimize oil production using recent technology. Indeed, various models have been proposed for predicting oil recovery using injected nanofluids (NFs). Among them, numerical modeling is attracting the attention of scientists and engineers owing to its ability to modify the thermophysical properties of NFs such as density, viscosity, and thermal conductivity. Herein, a new model for simulating NF injection into a 3D porous media for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is investigated. This model has been developed for its ability to predict oil recovery across a wide range of temperatures and volume fractions (VFs). For the first time, the model can examine the changes and effects of thermophysical properties on the EOR process based on empirical correlations depending on two variables, VF and inlet temperature. The governing equations obtained from Darcy's law, mass conservation, concentration, and energy equations were numerically evaluated using a time-dependent finite-element method. The findings indicated that optimizing the temperature and VF could significantly improve the thermophysical properties of the EOR process. We observed that increasing the inlet temperature (353.15 K) and volume fraction (4%) resulted in better oil displacement, improved sweep efficiency, and enhanced mobility of the NF. The oil recovery decreased when the VF (>4%) and temperature exceeded 353.15 K. Remarkably, the optimal VF and inlet temperature for changing the thermophysical properties increased the oil production by 30%.
两相达西定律是石油化工行业中一种著名的数学模型。它可预测油藏中的流体流动，并能用于利用最新技术优化石油生产。实际上，已经提出了各种用于预测使用注入纳米流体（NFs）进行油藏采收率的模型。其中，数值模拟因其能够改变纳米流体的热物理性质（如密度、粘度和热导率）而吸引了科学家和工程师的关注。在此，研究了一种用于模拟将纳米流体注入三维多孔介质以提高采收率（EOR）的新模型。该模型因其能够在广泛的温度和体积分数（VFs）范围内预测采收率而被开发。该模型首次能够基于取决于两个变量（VF和入口温度）的经验关联式，研究热物理性质对提高采收率过程的变化和影响。从达西定律、质量守恒、浓度和能量方程得到的控制方程，使用与时间相关的有限元方法进行了数值评估。研究结果表明，优化温度和VF可以显著改善提高采收率过程的热物理性质。我们观察到，提高入口温度（353.15 K）和体积分数（4%）会导致更好的驱油效果、提高波及效率并增强纳米流体的流动性。当VF（>4%）和温度超过353.15 K时，采收率会降低。值得注意的是，用于改变热物理性质的最佳VF和入口温度使石油产量提高了30%。
