A Numerical Simulation Approach for Superheated Steam Flow during Multipoint Steam Injection in Horizontal Well

Du, Qiuying; Li, Mingzhong; Liu, Chenwei; Bai, Zhifeng; Zhou, Chenru; Wang, Xiangyu

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/4572483

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Volume 2024 | Article ID 4572483 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/4572483

A Numerical Simulation Approach for Superheated Steam Flow during Multipoint Steam Injection in Horizontal Well

Qiuying Du,¹Mingzhong Li,¹Chenwei Liu,¹Zhifeng Bai,¹Chenru Zhou,¹and Xiangyu Wang¹

Academic Editor: Yiding Bao

Received04 Sept 2022

Revised12 Oct 2022

Accepted23 Jan 2023

Published19 Jan 2024

Abstract

Superheated steam flow during multipoint steam injection technology has a good effect on improving the steam absorption profile of heavy oil thermal recovery wells, enhancing the production degree of horizontal section of thermal recovery wells, and enhancing oil recovery. Based on the structure of multipoint steam injection horizontal string, considering the characteristics of variable mass flow, pressure drop of steam-liquid two-phase flow, and throttling pressure difference of steam injection valve in the process of steam injection, this paper establishes the calculation model of various parameters of multipoint steam injection horizontal wellbore and calculates the distribution of steam injection rate, temperature, pressure gradient, and dryness along the section of multipoint steam injection in horizontal wellbore. The results show that the temperature and pressure decrease gradually from heel to toe, and the steam dryness decreases gradually. Considering the influence of throttle pressure difference of steam injection valve and pressure drop of gas-liquid two-phase flow in the wellbore, the traditional calculation model of steam injection thermodynamic parameters is optimized, and the optimization of wellbore structure and steam injection parameters is an effective method to achieve uniform steam injection in horizontal wells. The steam injection uniformity of horizontal wells can be effectively improved by adjusting the steam injection valve spacing and steam injection parameters. When the steam injection volume is 200 m³/d and the steam injection valve spacing is 20 m, a more stable steam injection effect can be obtained. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of improving the uniformity of steam injection and enhancing the recovery factor.

1. Introduction

In the process of heavy oil production, the horizontal well has a large contact area with the reservoir, the range of steam injection is wide, and the productivity is higher than that of the vertical well [1, 2]. The multipoint steam injection technology in horizontal wells is widely used to improve the uniformity of steam injection, to optimize the steam chamber, and to enhance oil recovery [3]. This technology is widely used in Liaohe, Shengli, and Xinjiang oilfields, and the result is that technology can improve reservoir productivity, improve the steam injection uniformity, and enhance the oil recovery [4, 5]. However, there are few theoretical studies on this technology. A steady thermodynamic calculation model of gas-liquid two-phase flow in a steam injection column of multipoint steam injection was established [6], and the vapor injection valve with uniform distribution of the steam injection volume in horizontal wells was optimized as the objective function. However, due to the heterogeneity of the heavy oil reservoir and the effect of the vapor energy loss along the channel after the horizontal well scale implementation, there is a general problem of the heterogeneous production of horizontal tanks in the process of general steam injection [7–9]. Taking into account the above problem, scientists design a distributor that limits multiple flows to horizontal wells, injecting steam into multiple locations of horizontal reservoirs simultaneously through distributors.

In previous studies, the uniformity of multipoint steam injection is affected by the steam injection parameters and the location of the steam injection point, and the development of the steam cavity is not uniform, as shown in Figure 1; there are few studies on the optimization of the steam injection device and steam injection parameters [10].

To make stability of superheated steam injected into formation, get the uniform expansion of the steam chamber. First, the mathematical model is presented. Then, three-dimensional numerical simulation was carried out on the multipoint steam injection string, and the variation of parameters along the multipoint steam injection was analyzed to obtain the variable mass flow law of superheated steam in the wellbore. Finally, the steam injection situation under different steam injection volumes and steam injection positions was compared to optimize the steam injection uniformity. However, this paper only optimizes the parameters of steam injection volume and steam injection valve configuration, without considering other potential influencing factors, and will continue to explore and study related influencing factors in the future.

2. Mathematical Model

Fluid flow process in multipoint steam injection horizontal well is shown in Figure 2.

2.1. Basic Assumptions of the Model

(1)The oil reservoir in the horizontal portion is divided equally in the horizontal direction, and the thermal physical parameter of the reservoir does not vary with the change in temperature(2)When heat is transferred from the well to the outer edge of cementation, steady heat transfer occurs, and unsteady heat transfer occurs when the heat is transferred from the outer edge of the cement ring to the heat storage chamber(3)The horizontal well is divided into n microsegments, and the vapor injected into the same microsegment is uniformly sucked into the reservoir

2.2. Calculation of Pressure Gradient along the Path

After the saturated vapor is injected into the wellbore, it becomes a gas-liquid two-phase flow, and the gas-liquid two-phase flow is required to calculate the pressure change. According to the pressure gradient equation, the pressure gradient equation mainly includes friction loss pressure gradient, potential energy pressure gradient, and kinetic energy pressure gradient model [11–13].

The pressure gradient equation is expressed as Equation (1) by the conservation of mass and momentum. where is the pressure at the well point, ; is the depth, ; is wet vapor density, kg/m³; is the acceleration of gravity, m/s²; is an angle between the well and the horizontal direction, °; is the friction loss slope, Pa/m; is the steam mass flow rate, kg/s; is the volume flow of steam, m³/s; is the cross-section of the tubing, m².

2.3. A Computational Model of Temperature in the Well

The temperature and pressure of saturated steam have a coupling relationship, as shown in the following equation: where is the temperature of steam, °C, and is the steam pressure, MPa.

2.4. A Model of Steam Dryness along Well

Based on the law of energy conservation, at the same time and at the same depth, the heat loss is equivalent to the energy loss of the wet steam [14, 15], as shown in the following equation: where is heat loss, J; is the specific heat enthalpy of wet saturated steam, kJ/kg; is the wet steam velocity, m/s.

After finishing Equation (3), we can get

Among them, . where is the specific heat enthalpy of dry saturated steam, kJ/kg, and is a specific enthalpy of saturated water, kJ/kg; drying of any depth is expressed as follows [16]: where is the dryness of the initial injected steam, decimal.

2.5. Friction and Calculation of Work Done by Friction

The calculation is as follows: the microelement segment is subdivided into several smaller microelement segments according to the number of slit rows, and the thermophysical parameters of the fluid on each microelement segment are the same [17, 18]. Firstly, the mass flow rate and flow rate of fluid on each small microelement section are calculated, and then the friction force and frictional work on the microelement segment are calculated [19]. Then, the total friction force and frictional work on the microelement section are calculated by superposition [20–22]. The method provides a more detailed description of fluid flow in a slotted screen horizontal wellbore.

The steam absorption capacity of the reservoir of each row slit is

The mass flow of the row slit is

The average flow velocity on the small and microelement segments is

In unit time, the work done by the friction force on the microelement segment is expressed as follows [23–25]: where is the friction force between the steam and the inside of the screen tube, . The calculation method is

The expression of the work done by the friction force on the segment of length in unit time is

The expression of friction on the segment is [26, 27] where is the dimensionless friction coefficient [28]. The calculation method of friction coefficient between fluid and pipe wall adopts the conventional calculation method of pipe flow [29, 30], and the calculation process is as follows: (1)Calculate Reynolds number [31–33]

The Reynolds number calculation formula of two-phase flow is as follows: where is Reynolds number; and are the density of liquid water and dry saturated steam, kg/m³; is the viscosity of hot water in water vapor, MPa·s; is the viscosity of dry saturated steam in water vapor, MPa·s; is the volume liquid content of inlet, dimensionless. (2)Determine the flow state and calculate the hydraulic friction coefficient [34, 35]

3. Solution of the Model

(1)Vapor pressure, mass flow rate, temperature, and dryness at the heel are known, the whole horizontal part is divided into N sections, and each section is (2)The pressure drop change and dryness change of length are estimated as the initial values of iterative calculation, and the average pressure, average temperature, flow parameters and property parameters of the wet steam mixture, and the friction and friction work between the steam and the screen are calculated successively(3)When there is no steam injection valve in the microsegment, the wellbore pressure and pressure change as well as steam dryness and dryness change in the microsegment are calculated; when the microsegment contains steam injection valve, the wellbore pressure and pressure change and steam dryness and dryness change in the microsegment are calculated first, and then the pressure in the annulus is calculated(4)Compare the calculated and with the estimated and in step 2; if and , then the calculated results are reasonable. Otherwise, , , and return to step 2 to recalculate(5)Steps 2 to 4 are repeated to calculate the vapor pressure distribution, temperature, and degree of drying on each microsegment until the cumulative length of each microsegment is equal to or greater than the total length of the horizontal well (Figure 3).

4. Case Verification and Analysis

The distribution of pressure field, velocity field, and temperature field in multipoint steam injection wellbore is shown in Figures 4–6. When the steam flows through the steam injection valve, steam flow pressure is reduced, overall speed increased, and temperature decreased, which is close to the changes in the rate of steam injection; the steam valve side first increases then decreases, and the temperature rises after lower first. In order to explore the main factors affecting uniform steam injection, the steam injection velocity, the distance between the steam injection valves, and the steam drying performance are numerically simulated.

Based on the basic geological data of the Maccan River oilfield, a multipoint steam injection horizontal well model was established. The 3-dimensional model data are shown in Tables 1–3.

4.1. Effect of Steam Injection Rate Change on Uniform Steam Injection

In order to explore the influence of the change of steam injection speed on multipoint steam injection, the interval between the opening area of the steam injection valve and the control valve is constant. The quantity of steam injection was performed for 100 m³/d, 150 m³/d, and 200 m³/d (Figure 7); as the amount of steam injection increases, more steam is injected into the reservoir near the horizontal well, resulting in good steam injection uniformity and an increase in cumulative oil production. When the quantity of steam injection reaches 200 m³/d, the production efficiency is the highest.

4.2. Influence of Changing Steam Injection Valve Spacing on Uniform Steam Injection

The external screen structure remains unchanged, and the steam injection valve spacing was adjusted to 10 m, 20 m, and 30 m, respectively, to reestablish the mathematical model and conduct numerical simulation (Figure 8); with the decrease of steam injection valve spacing, more steam is injected into the reservoir near the heel of the horizontal well, while the steam reaching the toe of the horizontal section gradually decreases; the heating effect of the reservoir near the toe deteriorates, and it brings about the good heating effect of the reservoir near the heel. When the interval of the steam injection valve is 20 m, the ground layer has a good heating effect. The heterogeneity of the steam chamber is more serious if the distance between the steam injection valves is 10 m compared with the steam injection valve. In short, when the number of control valves is 20 m, the injection production profile and the steam chamber are uniformly distributed, and the best steam injection effect can be obtained.

In the schematic diagram of the temperature field change in the wellbore, the steam flow velocity in the steam injection tube is closely related to the position of the steam injection valve (Figure 9). Whenever the steam flows into the wellbore annulus through the steam injection valve, the steam speed will drop sharply. In the process of flow in the injection tube, the velocity remains relatively stable.

4.3. Effect of Changing Steam Dryness on Uniform Steam Injection

With the increase in vapor dryness, the vapor density decreases, the steam velocity increases in the well, the friction loss of the vapor in the flow process increases, and the decrease of vapor pressure increases. To explore the influence of steam dryness on the uniformity of steam injection, under the same conditions of other parameters, the variation law of uniform distribution of steam injection profile was compared when the steam dryness was 0.75, 0.85, and 0.95, respectively (Figure 10). With the increase of steam dryness, the average steam inlet flow and liquid inlet flow in the horizontal section of the horizontal well gradually decreased, but the distribution uniformity of the steam injection profile gradually increased.

5. Summary and Conclusions

Characteristics of variable mass flow rate in the steam injection process are considered based on a multipoint steam injection horizontal well. A calculation model of various parameters of multipoint steam injection horizontal well was established. Practical examples of multipoint steam injection are introduced. In order to calculate the vapor parameters along the well in the multipoint steam injection process, the nodal point analysis method is adopted. The effect of the steam injection parameter and the interval of the steam injection valve were analyzed on the vapor parameter along the well in the multipoint steam injection process. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study: (1)When the steam flows into the steam injection valve, the pressure decreases, the gas-liquid two-phase flow rate accelerates, the temperature decreases remarkably, and the friction loss becomes large(2)The well injection pressure hardly affects the heat loss of steam injection, and the heat loss in the well decreases with the increase of the distance between steam injection valves. The higher the injection rate, the higher the heat supplement is, the lower the heat loss is, and the higher the dryness of bottomhole steam is(3)In the actual steam injection process in the mine, the amount of steam injection can be increased appropriately to increase the dry steam at the bottom of the well, and the distance between the steam injection valves cannot be reduced

Data Availability

Data can be obtained from the corresponding author.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2016ZX05031-002) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51704190).

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Copyright © 2024 Qiuying Du et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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