Browsing by Subject "Viscosity Prediction"

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Database, Spreadsheet, and Models for Polymer Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery
(2021) Jaffray, Jacob; Balhoff, Matthew T.
Polymer chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a tertiary method of oil production that helps to improve the recovery of hydrocarbons in the late stages of a reservoir’ s life. This method of EOR increases the amount of unswept or residual oil produced by displacing and driving the fluids towards a producing well. Polymers are used in chemical EOR to improve the mobility ratio. The objectives of this research were to develop a predictive model to find the shear rate versus viscosity of a polymer sample without the need for lab input data, to create a program to model and validate the accuracy of large data sets simultaneously, and to combine common polymer calculations/programs into a Master Polymer Tool. This multi-faced work involved the use of lab work, numerous modeling techniques, and programming to achieve these outlined objectives. The predictive model was able to model the rheology of a polymer sample, while the program efficiently processed large amounts of polymer rheology data for modeling, quality validation, and to observe a macroscopic analysis of polymer behavior. Though there is a wide degree of variability in polymer data – in large part due to inconsistencies in preparation – current predictive modeling techniques were found to be accurate indicators of rheological behavior. Numerous other programs and spreadsheets related to polymer EOR were updated and combined into a Master Polymer Tool to provide researchers and engineers with a “ one stop shop” for commonly used calculations.