Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils, Vol.50, No.1, 55-70, 2014
Numerical Simulation of Surfactant-Polymer Flooding
We propose a mathematical model (numerical simulation) of surfactant-polymer flooding for a three-phase six-component system. The model takes into account various phenomena inherent to flooding, the effect of surfactant-polymer interactions on the viscosity, interfacial tension, and adsorption. We simulated the behavior of different mixtures of polymer and surfactant characterized by mutual attraction, mutual repulsion, or no interaction. We have studied the effect of volume of injected solution, injection rate, and polymer concentration on flooding performance. Taking into account interaction between the surfactant and the polymer results in a better match between the mathematical model and field data.
Keywords:surfactant-polymer flooding;mutual attraction;mutual repulsion;mathematical modeling;numerical simulation