Influence of Thin Film Drainage between Oil Slugs and Capillary Wall on Initial Differential Pressure

Date
2008-04
Authors
Cheng, Gang
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Regina, Graduate Students' Association
Abstract

Experimental results are discussed in this conference on oil slugs trapped in a capillary tube. Such an experimental set-up is employed as a simplified model to simulate residual oil trapped in porous structures of reservoirs. Differential pressures across the oil slug are measured under different hours of drainage time. Same experiments have been repeated on air slugs and similar results have been obtained. It is observed that under the same drainage time, the greater the lengths of the oil/air slugs are, the lower the values of the differential pressures are recorded. It is hypothesized that the mechanism behind this phenomenon is the drainage and devlopment of a water film in between the oil/air slug and the wall of the capillary. The thickness of the water film significantly affects mobilization of the oil/air slugs trapped in the capillaries. Further research work is being conducted to verify this hypothesis experimentally and numerically. This work investigates the relationship between the drainage of the water film and mobilization of oil/air slugs trapped in a capillary.

Description
Oral presentation at the 3rd Graduate Students' Research Conference, April 2008.
Keywords
Residual oil mobilization, Oil slug, Differential pressure, Film drainage, Drainage time
Citation