Impact of pertinent parameters on foam behavior in the entrance region of porous media: mathematical modeling

Foam injection is a promising solution for control of mobility in oil and gas field exploration and development, including enhanced oil recovery, matrix-acidization treatments, contaminated-aquifer remediation and gas leakage prevention. This study presents a numerical investigation of foam behavior in a porous medium. Fractional flow method is applied to describe steady-state foam displacement in the entrance region. In this model, foam flow for the cases of excluding and including capillary pressure and for two types of gas, nitrogen (N₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) are investigated. Effects of pertinent parameters are also verified. Results indicate that the foam texture strongly governs foam flow in porous media. Required entrance region may be quite different for foam texture to accede local equilibrium, depending on the case and physical properties that are used. According to the fact that the aim of foaming of injected gas is to reduce gas mobility, results show that CO₂ is a more proper injecting gas than N₂. There are also some ideas presented here on improvement in foam displacement process. This study will provide an insight into future laboratory research and development of full-field foam flow in a porous medium.