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Effect of Seismic Excitation on Mobilization of Trapped Oil Globule in Pore Doublet Model

Tareq Mohammed Al-Shami, Shiferaw Regassa Jufar, Ghareb Mostafa Hamada, Dinesh A/L Kanesan, Ulugbek Djuraev
Petroleum Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

Abstract—Over the years, several enhanced oil recovery techniques were developed in order to recover the residual oil trapped in the reservoir. Conventional EOR techniques rely on injection of fluids and chemicals into the reservoir to improve recovery. Unconventional methods of enhancing oil recovery such as the use of flow divergent and flow pulsation have emerged. One of the unconventional EOR techniques of interest is the application of seismic wave. Despite the fact that EOR by seismic wave has shown some potential in pilot field studies as well as laboratory experiments, the working mechanism of this technique is not well understood. In this study, we aim to investigate the ability of the seismic wave excitation in releasing a trapped oil globule in a pore doublet model. We studied the ability of this model to trap oil in an imbibition process. However, the trapping did not occur. Therefore, we generated an oil globule that was already isolated in pore 2 of the pore doublet model. The inlet velocity causing the oil globule trapping was tested and determined for the given pore doublet model dimensions. A sinusoidal wave vibration was applied to the model as the seismic excitation. The positive half of the wave cycle resulted in a an adverse pressure gradient, which led to a reversed flow of the fluids in the domain. Consequently, we started the excitation at the negative half of the wave cycle, which applies a favorable pressure gradient. The favorable pressure gradient resulted in a viscous pressure that overcame the capillary pressure holding the oil globule. Consequently, the oil globule was squeezed out of pore 2 and mobilized. The trapped oil globule was successfully mobilized by the effect of the seismic wave excitation. 

Index Terms—Enhanced Oil Recovery, Seismic Wave, Vibration, Seismic excitation, Oil Mobilization, Pore Doublet

Cite: Tareq Mohammed Al-Shami, Shiferaw Regassa Jufar, Ghareb Mostafa Hamada, Dinesh A/L Kanesan, and Ulugbek Djuraev, "Effect of Seismic Excitation on Mobilization of Trapped Oil Globule in Pore Doublet Model" International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 998-1002, November 2019. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.8.6.998-1002