Rheology of oil-based nitrogen foam at shallow reservoir conditions: Experiment and evaluation

Abstract

Exhibiting as a combination of viscous, elastic, and plastic behavior, rheology is a branch of physics and is majorly concerned with continuum mechanics for flow characterizations, particularly non-Newtonian flow like foam. However, most existing studies of foam rheology are primarily focused on water-based foam, while oil-based foam rheology lacks adequate understanding, plus few comprehensive experimental analyses have been done. This study, for the first time, investigates the rheological behavior of oil-based nitrogen foam with full foam quality and shallow reservoir conditions through a newly-designed visualized capillary rheometer. Basically, the effects of foam quality and shear rate on foam morphology and apparent viscosity were elucidated, and the foam rheology at different temperatures and pressures was evaluated. More specifically, with increasing shear rate, the apparent viscosity of nitrogen foam decreases in a concave-down parabola pattern. With the foam quality of 86 %, the apparent viscosity of the foam flow is found to reach its maximum value, 58.4 mPa·s, at the flow rate of 4 mL/min, temperature of 25 °C and pressure of 5 MPa. The foam flow gradually becomes uniform and dense and the apparent viscosity elevates with increasing foam quality up to 86 %. After that, the foam flow tends to be slug flow and its stability becomes worse with linearly-decreasing apparent viscosity. With increasing pressure, the apparent viscosity and consistency coefficient increase, which result in the increase of rheological index and decrease of non-Newtonian property. The temperature effects on the foam flow are absolutely opposite but stronger in comparison to pressure effects as aforementioned. In addition, the rheological equations of nitrogen foam are determined by fitting the consistency coefficient and rheological index with foam quality. Overall, thorough investigations of the rheology of oil-based nitrogen foam would be of great importance for foam theory and practice.