Polymer Flooding in a Heterogeneous Porous Media-Part II: A simulation Study

The main goal of this study is to simulate the polymer injection test using previously synthesized sulfonated acrylamide copolymer namely, acrylamide/2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AM/AMPS). Phase-field approach was applied for the simulation studies. Tuning parameters of this simulation study were interfacial tension (2×10-6 N/m) and the contact surface thickness (0.305mm). The reported contact angle was 40° for the tuned model. Comsol Multiphysics software was applied for the simulation. The selected polymer solution was prepared using equal ratios of AM and AMPS polymers, namely AMP55 with concentration of 2000 ppm and the injection test was performed in micromodel. The recovery factor for the experimental and modeling studies, were reported 26.91% and 29.4%, respectively, which represented a good agreement between experimental and simulation studies. The effective injection test parameters on oil recovery factor for polymer flooding experiments were investigated, including injection rate, copolymer solution viscosity, and the wettability of the porous media. The results were represented in a mathematical relation showing the relative effect of each parameter on the oil recovery factor.