The final report of phase 2 of DGMK project 746 "Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Polymer Flooding Processed Using Micromodels" was published as a DGMK research report.
The research group led by Prof. Dr. Leonhardt Ganzer and Dr. Jonas Wegner from the Institut für Erdöl- und Erdgastechnik at Clausthal University of Technology developed a method to simulate the mode of action of polymers in the reservoir that are used in "Enhanced Oil Recovery" (EOR) measures.
Natural rocks are imaged on silicon chips
The researchers have set up a test facility to simulate the fluid flow through the rock on micro-models ("chips") and observe it on a pore scale. The flooding process is visualised by so-called streamlines in the model. Deposit conditions, such as elevated temperatures, are also simulated.
One of the main challenges was to develop a method to convert the 3D flow paths of the real rock into pseudo-2D flow patterns of the 3-layer micro models. In the process developed at Clausthal University of Technology, the pseudo-2D models are generated from 3D data of µCT images of natural rocks.
