Experimental investigation on migration and retention mechanisms of elastic gel particles(EGPs)in pore-throats using multidimensional visualized models

Knowledge of migration and retention mechanisms of elastic gel particles(EGPs)in pore-throats is essential for the effective application of EGPs as a smart sweep improvement and profile control agent for enhanced oil recovery(EOR).The matching coefficient(defined as the ratio of particle size to pore-throat size)is used to investigate its influence on migration,retention and profile control performance of EGPs.A 1-D continuous pore-throat visualization model(PTVM),a 2-D heterogeneous PTVM and a 3-D heterogeneous core model were constructed and used to investigate pore-scale migration,retention and controlling mechanism of migration and retention characteristics on EGPs profile control.The results of the 1-D continuous PTVM indicated that while the matching coefficient was in the optimal range(i.e.,0.20-0.32),the EGPs could not only smoothly migrate to the deeper pore-throats,but also form stable retention in the pores to resist the erosion of injected water,which was conducive to the effective indepth profile control.The results of the 2-D heterogeneous PTVM verified that the sweep efficiency in low-permeability regions could be significantly improved by in-depth migration and stable retention of EGPs in the pore-throats with an optimal matching coefficient(0.29),which was much better than that in cases with a smaller matching coefficient(0.17)or an excessive matching coefficient(0.39).Moreover,the NMR displacement experiments of 3-D heterogeneous cores were carried out to simulate the EGPs profile control in actual reservoir porous media.Saturation images and T2 spectrum curves of crude oil showed that EOR in the low-permeability layer was highest(56.1%)using EGPs profile control with an optimal matching coefficient,attributing to the in-depth migration and stable retention of EGPs.