Investigation of Multiscale and Multiphase Flow, Transport and Reaction in Heavy Oil Recovery Processes. Final Report for the Period May 6, 1999-January 5, 2003.
The report describes progress made in the various thrust areas of the project, which include internal drives for oil recovery, vapor-liquid flows, combustion and reaction processes and the flow of fluids with yield stress. The report consists mainly of a compilation of various topical reports, technical papers and research reports published produced during the three-year project, which ended on May 6, 2002 and was no-cost extended to January 5, 2003. Advances in multiple processes and at various scales are described. In the area of internal drives, significant research accomplishments were made in the modeling of gas-phase growth driven by mass transfer, as in solution-gas drive, and by heat transfer, as in internal steam drives. In the area of vapor-liquid flows, we studied various aspects of concurrent and countercurrent flows, including stability analyses of vapor-liquid counterflow, and the development of novel methods for the pore-network modeling of the mobilization of trapped phases and liquid-vapor phase changes.