INSTABILITY OF A SHARP INTERFACE IN POLYMER FLOODING

Abstract

Non‐Newtonian fluids are used in current oil recovery processes. These fluids do not satisfy the linear Darcy law for flow through porous media. To model the recovery processes, a generalization of Darcy's law is used. A numerical method, developed originally for salt and fresh groundwater flow, has been adapted to incorporate the generalized Darcy law. We use it to model the two‐phase, two‐dimensional flow of immiscible fluids in a porous medium. In particular it will be applied to investigate the stability of the fluid/fluid interface. The results verify the theoretically predicted critical velocity above which the displacement of oil by polymer flooding becomes unstable, leading to low recovery.

Citation

VAN DUIJN, C.J. and FLORIS, F.J.T. (1992), "INSTABILITY OF A SHARP INTERFACE IN POLYMER FLOODING", Engineering Computations, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 453-467. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb023877