000			02616nab a2200205 4500
005			20260520002031.0
008			260224s2011 xxu
245	0	0	_aA mechanistic analysis of viscous fingering in low-tension polymer flooding in heavy-oil reservoirs
260			_a _b _cagos. 2011
270			_a03/04/2012 ; 03/04/2012
300			_a5 p. ; 228 - 232
520			_aTranscripción del resumen del autor. Modeling of the low tension polymer flooding (LTPF) in heavy oil reservoirs suffers from the paucity of detailed knowledge of viscous instability or fingering effects. Major limitations of previous approaches for studying viscous fingering in immiscible displacements are that the reported experiments have been conducted utilizing the linear displacements schemes in the media with high, single-phase permeabilities. Consequently, viscous instability has not been studied in low-permeability media and using the displacement schemes similar to the oil-field patterns (e.g., five-spot). To help understand viscous fingering in LTPF in heavy oil reservoirs and to overcome the limitations of previous studies, we conducted experiments in the low-permeability, one-quarter, five-spot patterns. New insights into the main driving mechanisms for viscous fingering are proposed. In summary, the mechanisms of spreading, splitting, coalescence, and microscopic crossflow drive the finger growth. In addition, the viscous fingers are readily initiated in the porous medium, but they can be damped out before traveling very far. This damping of the viscous fingers is due to the flow of the two phases in a direction transverse to the direction of bulk fluid movement as a result of dispersive processes such as stream splitting. Also, the initially-developed fingers may deteriorate over the time of displacement. This depends on the distance between the injector and producer and width of the porous medium. The presence of instabilities that look like fingers and stable displacements behind the unstable front were discovered. The results also indicate that a stable zone exists and progresses at varying velocities. Finally, we reveal three different types of displacements that occur in LTPF: stable displacements, displacement with macroscopic viscous fingering, and displacements with both macroscopic and microscopic viscous fingering.
581			_a2
773	0		_tJournal of Petroleum Science & Engineering _g78
942			_cARTICULO
100	1		_aYadali Jamaloei, Benyamin _950151
100	1		_aKharrat, Riyaz _939017
100	1		_aTorabi, Farshid _952308
999			_c186974 _d186974