Numerical simulation of preformed particle gel flooding for enhancing oil recovery

As a new type of oil recovery enhancing technology, preformed particle gel (PPG) flooding has been gradually used for high water-cut reservoir development. However, the current commercial software cannot simulate the processes of PPG flooding. In this paper, a novel mathematical model considering the behaviors of pore-throat plugging and particles restarting, the matching relations of particle size, throat size and pressure gradient is established based on the mass conservation equation and solved by IMPES and typical four-order Runge–Kutta methods. Also, the codes are written by Visual Basic, and the verification is proved by experimental data. Then, the influences of injection rate, suspension concentration, mean particle diameter, critical threshold pressure gradient and permeability ratio in ultimate oil recovery factor and water-cut are studied. The results show that, with the injection rate, mean particle diameter and critical restarting pressure gradient coefficient increasing, the ultimate oil recovery factor will increase first, and then decrease. As the concentration of injection suspension increases, the ultimate oil recovery factor will increase first, but at the later stage it tends to be smooth. As the permeability ratio increases, the enhanced recovery factor will also increase first, and then tend to be smooth.