Abstract

ABSTRACT One of the major restrictions to increased oil recovery from reservoirs is poor sweep efficiency, caused by an interfacial instability phenomenon termed "viscous fingering". This paper reports the results of an experimental study into viscous fingering in two-phase flow, using a one metre diameter Hele-Shaw cell. Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids were tested, including shear-thinning and ideal elastic (Boger) fluids. The viscous fingering patterns exhibit fractal behaviour, which enable both characterisation of the displacement pattern and extrapolation to larger scales. Rheological properties can have a significant influence on the viscous fingering pattern and thus on sweep efficiency. Shear-thinning fluids exhibit significantly increased interfacial instability, especially at the rear interface with the chasing waterflood. Elastic properties have a negligible effect on the macroscale development of viscous fingers, but may have an important role at the microscale, by modifying the viscosity ratio for flow in porous media. Results to date suggest that the greatest improvement in sweep efficiency for EOR polymer flooding may result from the development of a pusher fluid with viscoelastic non-shear-thinning properties.

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