A study of liquid drainage rate from foam with population balance equation: impact of bubble evolution

摘要

A significant challenge of foam injection is the stability of the foam in formations. In this study, the modeling of liquid drainage and the impact of some parameters (i.e., concentration of surfactants, nano-particles, and monovalent ions) on the liquid drainage rate and foam stability were investigated by using a population balance model. First, foam bubble size distribution was experimentally measured and used as input for the population balance model. The population balance equations were solved numerically, and the number density of bubble size distribution as a function of time was obtained. Then, the liquid drainage rate was calculated using volume balance equations. It is shown that the liquid drainage rate can be underestimated by neglecting the effect of gas bubble evolution over time. Thus, unrealistic (overestimated) foam stability is predicted. The results of this study provide an insight to the evaluation of foam stability for different solutions.