In-Situ Characterization of Foamy Oil Flow
A high-pressure sapphire cell developed for in-situ characterization of foamy oil under reservoir conditions, enabling real-time investigation of bubble morphology, size distribution, and foam quality.
Background
Unlike the conventional oil reservoirs under the solution gas drive, in many heavy oil reservoirs, the released gas bubbles remain dispersed in the highly viscous liquid oil during the early stages of pressure depletion. This pseudo-single phase flow regime, also termed as the foamy oil flow regime, is believed to be linked to anomalously high ultimate oil recovery, high oil production rates and low production gas-in-oil ratio (GOR) observed in the primary production stage.
High-Pressure Visual Cell
To support research and industry investigation on foamy oil flow during the cold heavy oil production process, a chip-scale platform for structural characterization of foamy oil under reservoir conditions is developed with patents issued in 2022/06/29.
This high-pressure sapphire cell allows for in-situ quantification of bubble morphology, size distribution, foam quality, etc. under the reservoir conditions, which is relevant for studying Ostwald ripening process, characterizing structure-property relations, etc. Other applications can be also achieved when integrated with optical and phase-field techniques.
Patent
A High-Pressure Visual Cell for In-Situ Observation of Foamy Oil Flow
Chinese Utility Model Patent, 2022 · CN217132972U
Research Outputs
1
Publications
1
Patents
Project Gallery
