Laboratory investigation of ferrofluid flooding for oil recovery

Key words:  ferrofluid  magnetic field  numerical calculation  flooding experiment  enhance oil recovery

Abstract:

In recent years, controllable ferrofluid has attracted a lot of attention in oil industry as a new function material. In this study, laboratory experiments of ferrofluid flooding for oil recovery were conducted at the first time, in which the mobilization of the ferrofluid through porous media was achieved via applying strong external magnetic fields. In modeling, the magnetic force has been introduced into the Darcy equation and a finite element method was used for the solution of the model. The effectiveness of the magnetic flow model was demonstrated by matching single-phase flow experiments. Water flooding and ferrofluid flooding in heterogeneous and fractured porous media were conducted. The results show that the flow behavior of the ferrofluid in porous media can be controlled by applying external magnetic field, so that the scope of the whole displacement can be raised, which can lead to significantly improved oil recovery superior to conventional water flooding.