Conformance control has long been a compelling subject in improving waterflood oil recovery. By blocking the areas previously swept by water, subsequently injected water is allowed to sweep the remaining unswept portions of the reservoir and thereby increase the ultimate oil recovery. One technique that has received a great deal of attention recently in achieving this in-depth water shut-off is crosslinked gel injection. However, processing and predicting the performance of these gels in complex petroleum reservoirs is known to be extremely challenging. A model that accurately represents the reservoir features, chemical properties, and displacement mechanisms is, therefore, required. In this study, we further developed the UT in-house numerical reservoir simulator, branded as UTGEL. Our first focus was to enable UTGEL to simulate a new type of temperature-resistant and salt-tolerant pre-crosslinked swellable particle gel, known as Preformed Particle Gel or PPG. A series of numerical simulations have been conducted to match with experimental data and generate parameters for full field scale simulation. Five laboratory experimental matching attempts were successfully performed using the UTGEL simulator in this study. The matched experiments included a fracture model, two sandpack models, a sandstone coreflood experiment, and a parallel sandpack model. The second focus of this study was to investigate the applications of PPG in blocking high-permeability layers, fractures, and conduits. A number of synthetic and actual field cases were generated to study the performance of PPG in (1) reservoirs with various layered permeability contrasts, from extremely low to extremely high permeability contrasts, (2) reservoirs containing extensive conduits or channels, and (3) real field cases where heterogeneity had been identified unfavorable to the waterflood efficiency. The simulation outcomes indicated significant incremental oil recovery from PPG treatment ranging from less than 5% to almost 30%. A number of sensitivity analyses were also conducted to provide some insights on the optimal PPG treatment design. Lastly, to enhance the capability of UTGEL in simulating gel transport in diverse scenarios, a novel Embedded Discrete Fracture Modeling (EDFM) concept was implemented into UTGEL in this study, allowing multiple sets of fracture planes and conduits with dip angles and orientations to be modeled and simulated with gel treatments for the first time with a rather computationally inexpensive method. Although the developed simulator requires further improvement and validation against wider reservoir and fluid conditions, the representative results from a number of generated models in this study have suggested another step forward towards achieving realistic reservoir modeling and advanced gel transport simulation. / text

Der moderne Entwicklungsprozess von Bauteilen umfasst nicht nur Aspekte der funktionsgerechten Dimensionierung, sondern berücksichtigt auch Materialien, die auf Umgebungsbedingungen reagieren oder deren Verhalten sich von außen regeln lassen kann. Im Allgemeinen weisen diese Materialien mechanische Eigenschaften auf, die von mindestens einem weiteren physikalischen Feld, das zum Beispiel elektrischer, magnetischer oder chemischer Natur sein kann, aufgrund dem Material eigener innerer Wechselwirkungen beeinflusst werden. In der Literatur wird für diese Klasse von Materialien häufig der Begriff smart materials oder intelligent materials verwendet [Leo07]. Für die Forschung stellten diese Materialien in den letzten Jahren ein außerordentlich spannendes Aufgabenfeld dar, sodass eine Vielzahl von Materialien klassifiziert werden konnte [BC04] und auf Basis ihrer charakteristischen Eigenschaften neuartige Sensor- und Aktorsysteme entstanden sind [GA10]. Ein Beispiel ist das in Abbildung 1.1 dargestellte Modell eines Chemosensors auf Basis eines polyelektrolyten Gels, der am Institut für Festkörperelektronik der TU Dresden entwickelt wurde.