Review of transport mechanisms and numerical simulation studies of preformed particle gel for conformance control

Abstract

Reservoir heterogeneity is one important reason for low oil recovery and early excessive water production. As an effective method to improve sweep efficiency and to reduce excessive water production, preformed particle gel has been applied widely in oilfields to control reservoir conformance due to its advantages in easy mixing and pumping, and gel quality control, compared to traditional in-situ polymer gels. Many lab-scale experiments and numerical simulations have been also conducted to understand particle transport mechanisms, plugging performance, and/or assist field application design. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review that summarizes the mechanisms and empirical models of particle gel transport and retention from experiments and the numerical simulation models including the percolation model, size exclusion model and lattice Boltzmann model in three scales of applications, respectively. We emphasized that the models to simulate open fracture and the porous media with pore networks should be different due to the different transport and plugging mechanisms of particle gels. Models and analyzed results presented in this review will help elucidate the problems and limitations in commercial/in-house software and published simulation models of particle gels for conformance control. The review results suggest the immature status of numerical simulation models on particle gel treatment in many key aspects. As a result, we also present suggestions and discussions with related bulk gel and fine particle models for future experimental and quantitative studies in order to develop an integrated field scale simulation model of preformed particle gel for conformance control. • We provide a comprehensive review of numerical simulation models for the mechanisms of particle gel for conformance control. • We categorize the models into three types: fracture model, core-scale and grain-scale models. • The review results reveal the immature stage of particle gel simulation studies and room for improvement. • A hierarchy plot of simulation models and strategy scheme for particle gel treatment is designed. • A scale up strategy of particle gel simulation is summarized from lab to field.