The Simulation of Polymer Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media

Abstract

In this paper, some recent progress is described with a programme of study on polymer flow in heterogeneous (layered) porous media. This work has used numerical simulation, including models for all the main polymer phenomena, in order to establish recovery mechanisms in polymer flooding. Fluid crossflow is central to the recovery mechanisms in stratified systems with communicating layers. Scaling theory has been used to establish the relative magnitude of the various crossflow effects at both the field and laboratory scale. A combination of simulation and scaling theory has enabled us to define appropriate laboratory experiments, which reproduce the main reservoir features in a correctly scaled way. Some experimental results are presented and analysed by computer simulation.