Stability of non-newtonian fluid interfaces in a porous medium and its applications in an oil displacement mechanism

https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9797(88)90216-0Get rights and content

Abstract

The paper presents the approximate analytical solutions for the description of conditions required for the stability of non-Newtonian fluid interfaces in a porous medium. Both fluids, displacing and displaced, are considered to be of power law behavior. The implications of this rheological behavior on the moving interface stability are shown and discussed for certain cases of practical interest in oil reservoir engineering, where a knowledge of possible performance in mobility control in enhanced oil recovery floods, with non-Newtonian displacing fluids, is required. The results obtained should be useful in finding an optimal policy of injection, in order to minimize the instability effects on a moving interface involved in an oil displacement mechanism.

References (7)

  • H Pascal et al.

    J. Colloid Interface Sci.

    (1987)
  • H Pascal

    Intl. J. Eng. Sci.

    (1986)
  • R.L.P Chouke

    Trans. AIME

    (1959)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (19)

  • A numerical study on Saffman-Taylor instability of immiscible viscoelastic-Newtonian displacement in a Hele-Shaw cell

    2018, Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
    Citation Excerpt :

    Despite the importance of surface tension in viscous fingering phenomenon, only a few studies have been conducted in immiscible non-Newtonian displacement. Pascal [40,41] performed a theoretical analysis of the viscous fingering instability in shear-thinning fluids. All of the investigations have performed for immiscible liquids and the power-law model, using the constitutive equations.

  • Saffman–Taylor instability of viscoelastic fluids in anisotropic porous media

    2018, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences
    Citation Excerpt :

    The vast majority of these studies have focused on the role of shear-thinning fluid in this instability and the effect of elasticity has been ignored. Pascal [23–25] was among those who investigated the fingering instability that displacing or displaced fluids were shear-thinning fluids. He used the power law model to show the shear-thinning behavior of non-Newtonian fluids.

  • Displacement of yield-stress fluids in a fracture

    2015, International Journal of Multiphase Flow
  • Analysis of a benchmark solution for non-Newtonian radial displacement in porous media

    2013, International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics
    Citation Excerpt :

    Pascal [11] adopted Muskat’s frontal advance model to study steady-state immiscible displacement of a Bingham fluid by another in plane/radial geometry. Steady-state displacement, and its stability, were analyzed in Ref. [12] for power-law fluids with yield stress in plane geometry, and in Ref. [13] for power-law fluids in radial geometry; capillarity was added to the model in Ref. [14]. In Ref. [15], transient plane displacement of a power-law compressible fluid by another was considered.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text