Modeling of Foam Flow in Porous Media for Subsurface Environmental Remediation
type: CreativeWork
description: Among numerous foam applications in a wide range of disciplines, foam flow in porous media has been spotlighted for improved/enhanced oil recovery processes in petroleum-bearing geological formations and shallow subsurface in-situ NAPL (non-aqueous phase liquid) environmental remediation in contaminated soils and aquifers. In those applications, foams are known to reduce the mobility of gas phase by increasing effective gas viscosity and improve sweep efficiency by mitigating subsurface heterogeneity. This study investigates how surfactant/foam process works fundamentally for environmental remediation purpose by using MoC (Method of Characteristics) based foam modeling and simulation techniques. It consists of two main parts: Part 1, developing foam model using three-phase fractional flow theory accounting for foam flow rheology such as foam strength and stability at different phase saturations; and Part 2, extending the model to investigate the mechanisms of surfactant/foam displacement in multi-layer systems. Part 1 investigates six scenarios such as different levels of foam strength (i.e., gas mobility reduction factors), different initial conditions (i.e., initially oil/water or oil/water/gas present), foam stability affected by water saturation (Sw), oil saturation (So), and both together, and uniform vs. non-uniform initial saturations. The process is analyzed by using ternary diagrams, fractional flow curves, effluent histories, saturation profiles, time-distance diagrams, and pressure and recovery histories. The results show that the three-phase fractional flow analysis presented in this study is robust enough to analyze foam-oil displacements in various conditions, as validated by an in-house numerical simulator built in this study. The use of numerical simulation seems crucial when the foam modeling becomes complicated and faces multiple possible solutions. Part 2 first shows how to interpret theoretically the injection of surfactant preflush and following…
abstract: Among numerous foam applications in a wide range of disciplines, foam flow in porous media has been spotlighted for improved/enhanced oil recovery processes in petroleum-bearing geological formations and shallow subsurface in-situ NAPL (non-aqueous phase liquid) environmental remediation in contaminated soils and aquifers. In those applications, foams are known to reduce the mobility of gas phase by increasing effective gas viscosity and improve sweep efficiency by mitigating subsurface heterogeneity. This study investigates how surfactant/foam process works fundamentally for environmental remediation purpose by using MoC (Method of Characteristics) based foam modeling and simulation techniques. It consists of two main parts: Part 1, developing foam model using three-phase fractional flow theory accounting for foam flow rheology such as foam strength and stability at different phase saturations; and Part 2, extending the model to investigate the mechanisms of surfactant/foam displacement in multi-layer systems. Part 1 investigates six scenarios such as different levels of foam strength (i.e., gas mobility reduction factors), different initial conditions (i.e., initially oil/water or oil/water/gas present), foam stability affected by water saturation (Sw), oil saturation (So), and both together, and uniform vs. non-uniform initial saturations. The process is analyzed by using ternary diagrams, fractional flow curves, effluent histories, saturation profiles, time-distance diagrams, and pressure and recovery histories. The results show that the three-phase fractional flow analysis presented in this study is robust enough to analyze foam-oil displacements in various conditions, as validated by an in-house numerical simulator built in this study. The use of numerical simulation seems crucial when the foam modeling becomes complicated and faces multiple possible solutions. Part 2 first shows how to interpret theoretically the injection of surfactant preflush and following…
author: Lee, Seungjun
keywords: Subsurface remediation, Fractional flow, Foam flow in porous media, Foam
date published: 2014-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:58:50Z
provider: Lousiana State University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Petroleum Engineering

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.1126