2015 Volume 80 Issue 3 Pages 187-194
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has already been in practical use to recover the residual oil from depleted oil reservoirs. In order to improve the efficiency of EOR, fundamental mechanism of recovery process needs to be clarified; however, real time observation of the flow in the porous structure is difficult. In this study, three-phase refractive index matching method was adapted to visualize the two-phase flow of surfactant flooding in a micro-scale porous media. Three-dimensional dynamics of oil recovery process was observed by using adequate test fluids and optical system. As a result, mobilization and coalescence of residual oil droplets were able to be visualized clearly. Time dependent variation of recovery ratio was also analyzed quantitatively. Finally, extensibility of presented technique for three-dimensional visualization was also discussed.
