A visual study of nanofluids dynamics for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) purposes

Nanotechnology is a solution to solving critical problems in many aspects of engineering and medical problems. Their differences are about size, shape, type, and composition of particles. Fluids containing these particles called nanofluids. In this study, we report the results of wettability alteration for EOR reason in sandstone numerically. It is a two-component fluid flow simulation and we aim to investigate the effects of wettability alteration and buoyancy force on fingering growth in dual wettability and permeability porous media. The results show fingering growth by capillary force in dual wettability sandstone reaches in equilibrium between two wet and non-wet regions. In which, the wet part attracts fluid and grain surfaces cover by a film of it, and in the non-wet region, this fluid occupies only big pore spaces. By changing and reversing wettability by nanoparticles, we can increase oil efficiency so, oil recovery will improve. In dual permeability porous medium with natural wettability, an equilibrium state between two phases is observed.

Keywords:

Nanofluids , buoyancy force , wettability , dual permeability , sandstone.