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Combustion in miscible displacement for high-pressure air injection. (English) Zbl 1439.76153

Summary: This paper describes miscible displacement upon air injection in a porous medium saturated with oil corresponding to conditions of high-pressure air injection (HPAI). We assume that injection fluids and produced fluids are fully miscible with the oil at the prevailing high pressure. We use three pseudo-components, viz., oxygen, oil, and an inert component, which includes nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. To model the fingering instabilities, we follow a similar procedure as proposed by E. J. Koval [“A method for predicting the performance of unstable miscible displacement in heterogeneous media”, SPE J. 3, No. 2, 145–154 (1963; doi:10.2118/450-PA)] and include the reaction between oxygen and oil in the Koval model. The equations are solved numerically, using a finite element software package (COMSOL). The results show that a combustion wave is formed. We study the performance at low and high viscosities and show that the reaction improves the speed and degree of recovery at later times.

MSC:

76S05 Flows in porous media; filtration; seepage
80A25 Combustion
Full Text: DOI

References:

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