Experimental and Numerical Study of Gel Particles Movement and Deposition in Porous Media After Polymer Flooding

Abstract

Gel particle, a promising conformance control technology, is recently applying to after-polymer-flooding reservoirs by reusing the remaining polymer in porous media. However, there is no available numerical model which is useful for simulating the conformance control. A series of lab experiments are conducted to explore the main characters of gel particles movements after polymer flooding. Four main mechanisms, namely, swelling, synergy with remaining polymer, shear breaking, and deformation migration, are recognized and described by mathematical formulas. Based on the physical experiments, a numerical model is established to simulate gel particles propagation after polymer flooding. In particular, gel particles are treated as an additional component in aqueous phase. The interaction between the particle gels and the remaining polymer is simplified by aqueous viscosity relationship and particle gel grain size variation. Two transport forms, plugging and deformation migration, are embodied in the model, and the local pressure gradient controls which form the propagation belongs to. The retention of particle gels will cause pore volume decrease and therefore reduce the permeability of thief zones to bypassing water to less swept zones. An iterative method is employed to decouple the gel particle profile control model, which is robust and fairly time-saving. In particular, the flow model is numerically solved by the IMPSAT method and the gel particles continuity equation is explicitly solved by using an operator splitting technique. The newly developed model is validated by history matching results of 1D experiments and actual application case. The results suggest that the presented model is helpful to optimize parameters for profile control for gel particle profile control technology.