On the Fate of Oil Ganglia during Immiscible Displacement in Water Wet Granular Porous Media

Abstract

In a series of previous publications a model was formulated for the study of the dynamics of oil ganglia populations during immiscible displacement in oil recovery processes. The model is composed of four components: a suitable model for granular porous media, a mobilization/breakup criterion, a Monte Carlo simulation method capable of predicting the fate (mobilization, breakup, stranding) of solitary oil ganglia, and two coupled ganglia-population balance equations—one applying to moving ganglia and the other to stranded ones. Central roles in this model are played by the probability of mobilization, the probability of breakup per rheon, the probability of stranding per rheon, the breakup coefficient and the stranding coefficient. These parameters have already been calculated for randomly shaped oil ganglia. However, stochastic simulations show that mobilized oil ganglia tend to get elongated and slender. The effect of slenderization on the aforementioned parameters is investigated here based on Monte Carlo simulation results.