Science Talks 3 (2022) 100036

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.es/sctalk

Complex fluids with visco-elastic rheology for applications

in oil & gas industry
⁎
Shauvik De a, , Steffen Berg b,c
a
Shell India Markets Private Limited, Bangalore, India
b
Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Amsterdam, the Netherlands
c
Imperial College London, United Kingdom

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: During the oil and gas recovery from subsurface, the recovery efficiency is mainly limited by two factors: pore-scale
Hydrocarbon recovery trapping resulting in irreducible hydrocarbon saturations and bypassing because of limited sweep efficiency due to
Shear rate in porous media rock heterogeneity, viscosity contrast and viscous instabilities. In order to improve the sweep efficiency, hydro-
Pore scale modelling
soluble polymer solutions with Non-Newtonian rheology are applied. The difficulty is in predicting the in-situ effective
Elastic turbulence
viscosity in Darcy-scale flow in the porous medium, based on bulk rheology provided for instance by shear rheometers
Complex fluids
Viscoelasticity
(Berg and van Wunnik, 2017). Most of the relevant polymer systems, however, also exhibit viscoelasticity which can
Non Newtonian flow lead to elastic turbulence during flow through porous medium (De et al., 2022a). Here we show progress on the fun-
Microfluidics damental side, how to visualize the respective pore scale flow fields and understand the fundamental origins using a
Rheology system that contains one single pore throat (Eguagie et al., 2020) and multiple pore throats and its effect on residual
Fluid mechanics oil saturation (De et al., 2022b). In addition, we demonstrate how we numerically simulate the flow of viscoelastic
fluids in porous medium and characterize elastic turbulence (De et al., 2022c).

Videos to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/

j.sctalk.2022.100036.

⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shauvik.de@shell.com (S. De).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sctalk.2022.100036
Received 17 May 2022; Accepted 20 May 2022
2772-5693/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
S. De, S. Berg Science Talks 3 (2022) 100036

Figures and tables

Often around 20-30% Producer

Residual oil saturation Polymer oil

of oil left trapped

• increase viscosity
• improve mobility control water

and sweep. water injector

surfactants will lower interfacial tension

Surfactant
emulsion
Sweep efficiency • lower interfacial tension
Bypassed zones Fingering due to • mobilize residual oil. water
due to well placement viscous oil
Producer Alkali Carboxylic acids Carboxylates - surfactants
Oil Oil
oil • high pH of 11 OH-
- - - -
• natural surfactants (soaps) Water Water

• minimize surf. adsorption

wat
er

water Thief zones Alkali Surfactant Polymer (ASP)

injector
by heterogeneity

Fig. 1. Optimizing oil recovery targets the improvement of microscopic displacement efficiency to reduce the residual oil saturation at pore scale, and the improvement of
(horizontal and vertical) sweep efficiency at reservoir scale. To achieve that a range of processes such as alkali surfactant polymer flooding are considered. The function of the
polymer is to increase the viscosity and stabilize the displacement, hence improve the sweep efficiency.
Solubilizaon

Time
44.8 44.9 45.1 45.8 (min)

Fig. 2. Due to the advances in imaging technology, it has become increasingly possible to directly image the processes outlined in Fig. 1 directly, in-situ. Here is an example
where the displacement and subsequent dissolution of the remaining oil saturation after waterflooding by a microemulsion-forming surfactant system has been imaged at the
pore scale [6–8]. Figure taken from [6].

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water

ASP

ASP Fingering zone Oil bank Residual oil

ASP

ASP

1m

Fig. 3. Imaging an ASP experiment at the meter scale using a medical CT scanner [9–12] where residual oil present after water flooding (approx.. 40%) is displaced by alkaline
surfactant polymer solution with ultralow interfacial tension, reveals that even when there is a viscosity match between displacing and displaced fluid, there is still viscous
fingering present. The reason is most likely a relative permeability effect (the stability criteria for immiscible displacement in porous media is a matter of mobility ratio which
is the ratio of relative permeability over viscosity, and not just viscosity ratio [13]).

A ASP flood matching crude oil viscosity B ASP viscosity 2x crude oil viscosity

Fingering zone Oil bank sharper

shorter front
fingering
zone

ASP ASP

Fig. 4. Example demonstrating how polymer can stabilize the displacement and improve the sweep efficiency. Dimensionless saturation profile during the injection of
alkaline surfactant polymer solution (ASP) for oil recovery where the viscosity of the ASP solution is matched to that of the crude oil (A). Viscous fingering is present in
the zone following the oil bank, but the profiles for different pore volume fractions of ASP solution collapse on top of each other suggesting still an overall stable displacement
[9–12]. When the viscosity of the ASP solution has been increased 2× compared with crude oil (B), viscous fingering is now diminished with the saturation front between the
fingering zone and the oil bank being sharper and the fingering zone itself shorter compared with (A) [9–12]. Figure modified from [9].

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A B

High velocity
High shear rate
well Low viscosity

Pressure P

Fluid viscosity
injecon
Fracc pressure
of rock
Shear-thinning polymer

Constant viscosity fluid

Distance from well

Fig. 5. The purpose of the polymer in polymer is to improve the horizontal and vertical sweep efficiency (A) by increasing the viscosity of the displacing water phase towards
the crude oil viscosity which is often much higher than that of water. Shear-thinning hydrosoluble polymer solutions are particularly suitable for that purpose because at the
injection point, due to their shear-thinning nature, their viscosity is decreased which improves injectivity. However, at sufficient distance from the well bore, where the shear
rate is lower, the viscosity increase which then improves the sweep efficiency (B).

Fig. 6. The fundamental question is how to estimate an in-situ shear rate inside the porous medium. At the pore scale picture where Navier-Stokes flow is used, we can directly
compute a shear rate from the flow field and couple it with the rheological relationships for the polymer solution e.g. the Carreau model determined by bulk rheology mea-
surements. However, for practical applications at the Darcy scale, we have to guesstimate the effective shear rate from the Darcy velocity. The commonly used Cannella eq.
[15] is based on a capillary tubes model. The “C-parameter” in the equation varies by 3 orders of magnitude [14] suggesting that there are issues with this approximation.
Figure adapted from [1].

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Fig. 7. However, one can show analytically that the issue is rooted in the assumption that shear rate is proportional to flow velocity. In particular for capillary tubes shear rate
and flow velocity are anti-correlated (shear rate is highest at the cylinder wall where flow velocity is lowest). This means that in particular for capillary tubes for which the
Canella equation has been derived, it holds the least. Using a pore scale computational fluid dynamics approach for Newtonian fluids we can investigate the relationship for
more complex geometries. For bead packs we see more of a proportionality between flow velocity and shear rate which originates from symmetry reasons. Capillary tubes and
bead packs represent limiting cases in terms of shear rate – flow velocity relationships. Figure adapted from [1].

Fig. 8. For sandstone rocks we observe in practice for the relationship between shear rate and flow velocity a combination of the limiting cases from Fig. 7 which cause the
relationship between shear rate and flow velocity to significantly deviate from the simple proportionality as assumed in the Canella equation. Figure adapted from [1].

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Fig. 9. Non-Newtonian fluids, such as polymer solutions that have shear-thinning bulk-rheology, show more complex in-situ behavior in porous media such as an apparent
“shear-thickening” which Chauveteau [16] already showed in 1981. A shear-thinning regime is still observed due to extensional flow effects, but the apparent shear-
thickening is caused by the converging-diverging geometry of pore bodies and pore throats. Image taken from [3].

Fig. 10. It is possible to parameterize this effect with a separate extensional viscosity coefficient and match in pore scale simulations the effective pressure drop [17]. While
the shear-thinning rheology is input, the “shear-thickening” parameterized here by extensional viscosity is purely phenomenological and does not capture the underlying
physics which is a visco-elastic instability, often referred to as “elastic turbulence” [18].

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Fig. 11. Experiments conducted in 2D microfluidic chip and imaged by an optical microscope allows to image the flow field via particle image velocimetry. Clearly visible is
how the restriction cases first extensional flow but at further increase of the flow rate (while the Reynolds number is still << 1) a non-steady flow field with multiple eddies is
observed, caused by an elastic instability [3]. Image adapted from [3].

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Fig. 12. The instability is systematically investigated, comparing a Newtonian fluid (glycerol, left) and two solutions of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide solution in de-ionized
water (middle) and in sodium chloride brine (right) shows how the viscoelastic instability evolves systematically as function of bulk rheology and flow rate. Image taken
from [3].

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Fig. 13. Based on the series of experiments the different flow regimes and the transition between then have been mapped out as a function of Deborah number (horizontal
axis) and the normalized first normal stress difference (vertical axis). This study shows that the essence of the instability is reproduced in a single pore throat. At a certain
extensional rate the normal stress difference increases over-proportionally while the shear viscosity drops which causes the flow field to rotate in order to minimize dissipa-
tion. Image taken from [3].

Fig. 14. The transition from stable steady-shear flow via extensional flow to elastic turbulence with a high rotational component is quantified via the flow parameter Qf [19]
[23]. Image taken from [3].
S. De, S. Berg Science Talks 3 (2022) 100036

Fig. 15. In order to compare this viscoelastic instability with regular Kolmogorov turbulence, the pressure fluctuations (which are measured in-situ in the microfluidic chip)
are analyzed. First the Fourier transform is computed and then the power law exponent is estimated by fitting a line to the data on a log-log scale. Image taken from [3].

Fig. 16. Plotting the magnitude of the power law exponent from Fig. 15 as function of Deborah number De shows that for a fully developed elastic turbulence flow regime
inside the microfluidic chip we obtain a power law exponent around 2.0 which is higher than the value for Kolmogorov turbulence at high Reynolds numbers. Image taken
from [3].

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Fig. 17. Schematic drawing of the pillared microchannel. Figure taken from [2].

Fig. 18. Time averaged velocity profiles (normalized) at Deborah no 0.5 Figure taken from [2].

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Fig. 19. Time averaged velocity profiles (normalized) at Deborah no 10, observation of lane change of flow profiles Figure taken from [2].

Fig. 20. Steady shear viscosity vs. shear rate for the different non-Newtonian fluids used in multiphase flow measurements Figure taken from [4].

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Fig. 21. Apparent relative viscosity vs. Shear rate for displacing viscoelastic HPAM Figure taken from [4,21].

Fig. 22. Percentage remaining oil saturation as a function of capillary number for different displacing fluids Figure taken from [4].

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Fig. 23. Snapshots of residual oil microstructures in steady state after displacement by (a) water, (b) xanthan, (c) HPAM, and (d) VES. The subfigures (1, 2 and 3) correspond
to increasing Ca numbers. Figure taken from [4].

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Fig. 24. Normalized stress profiles behind the cylinder along the channel centerline for different De numbers for an Oldroyd-B fluid. Figure taken from [20,22].

Fig. 25. Velocity profile of viscoelastic fluids in 3D and 2D complex porous mediums Figure taken from [5,20].

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Fig. 26. Flow topology parameter histogram for the symmetric and asymmetric configuration for different De numbers Figure taken from [5].

Fig. 27. Viscoelastic flow streamlines through a representative section of monodisperse spheres at De = 1.0 for solid fractions (a) = 0.3 and (b) = 0.5. The planes are colored
with normalized averaged flow velocity. Figure taken from [22].

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Fig. 28. Apparent relative viscosity versus De number for different porosity. Here De is based on the radius Rc of the sphere Figure taken from [22]. Apparent relative viscosity
versus altered Dek, using as the characteristic length scale, for different solid fractions. Neglecting the slight flow-induced thinning around Dek = 0.1, most data can be fitted
through a correlation Figure taken from [22].

Fig. 29. Flow topology parameter histograms for solid fractions (a) 0.3, (b) 0.4, (c) 0.5, and (d) 0.6, for different De numbers Figure taken from [5,22].

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Fig. 30. Distribution of non-dimensional dissipated energy versus flow topology for different De number Figure taken from [5,22].
Credit authorship contribution statement
Steffen Berg and Shauvik De both contributed to equal amounts to this
presentation. The talk consists of two main parts. The first part covers a
range of projects where multiple people contributed. S. Berg was key con-
tributor in all projects that the first part covers, including conceptualiza-
tion, methodology, visualization, writing and supervision. Shauvik De
was deeply involved in terms of supervision but also writing of the elastic
turbulence part.
The second part of the paper covers results of Shauvik De's PhD work
where he is the main contributor.
Acknowledgments
E. Ekanem, P. Luckham, Ali Fadili, J. van Wunnik and D. van Batenburg
are gratefully acknowledged for contributions to this work and helpful dis-
cussions. In particular E. Ekanem is gratefully acknowledged for allowing
us to show some key results of her PhD thesis in the first part of the talk.
S. Oedai, L. David, E. Ineke and K. Elewaut are gratefully acknowledged
for their contributions to the imaging of the ASP experiment.
For the part of Shauvik De's contribution we gratefully acknowledge the
support and contribution from Prof. Hans Kuipers (TU Eindhoven,
Netherlands), Prof. Johan Padding (TU Delft, Netherlands) and Dr. Frank
Peters (TU Eindhoven, Netherlands).
Funding
This work was supported by the Shell Global Solutions International
B.V., The Netherlands.
Declaration of interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial inter-
ests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the
work reported in this paper.
References
[1] Berg & van Wunnik, Transp. Porous Media 117 (2) (2017) 229–246.
[2] S. De, J. Van Der Schaaf, N.G. Deen, J.A.M. Kuipers, E.A.J.F. Peters, J.T. Padding, Phys.
Fluids 29 (11) (2022) 113102.
[3] Eguagie, et al., Phys. Rev. E 101 (4) (2020), 042605.
[4] S. De, P. Krishnan, J. Van Der Schaaf, J.A.M. Kuipers, E.A.J.F. Peters, J.T. Padding, J.
Colloid Interface Sci. 510 (2022) 262–271.
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Science Talks 3 (2022) 100036
[5] S. De, J.A.M. Kuipers, E.A.J.F. Peters, J.T. Padding, Physical Rev. Fluids 2 (5) (2022)
053303.
[6] E. Unsal, M. Rucker, S. Berg, W.-B. Bartels, A. Bonnin, Imaging of compositional gradi-
ents during in-situ emulsification using X-ray micro-tomography, J. Colloid Interface
Sci. 550 (2019) 159–169.
[7] E. Unsal, M. Broens, R.T. Armstrong, Pore scale dynamics of microemulsion formation,
Langmuir 32 (28) (2016) 7096–7108.
[8] M. Broens, E. Unsal, Emulsification kinetics during quasi-miscible flow in dead-end
pores, Adv. Water Resour. 113 (2018) 13–22.
[9] S. Berg, S. Oedai, D.W. van Batenburg, K. Elewaut, D.M. Boersma, E.M. Ineke, Visuali-
zation of ASP core flood experiments with X-ray CT imaging, EAGE 18th European Sym-
posium on Improved Oil Recovery, paper B12, Dresden, 14-16, 2015 4.
[10] T. Matsuura, W.M. Stoll, D.W. van Batenburg, D.M. Boersma, J.N.M. van Wunnik, S.
Berg, P.M. Boerrigter, Modelling of ASP Flooding Using X-ray CT Core Flooding Exper-
iments, EAGE 18th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, paper A13, Dres-
den, 14-16, 2015 4.
[11] D.W. Van Batenburg, S. Berg, S. Oedai, L.L. David, A. Siemens, K. Elewaut, Visualisation
of Light Oil Mobilisation in ASP Core Floods Using X-Ray CT Imaging, SPE Asia-Pacific
Enhanced Oil Recovery Conference, 11–13 August, 2015 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
paper SPE-174660-MS.
[12] D.W. van Batenburg, S. Berg, S. Oedai, K. Elewaut, Visualization of Oil Mobilization in
ASP Core Floods Using X-ray CT Imaging, SPE Kuwait Oil and Gas Show and Confer-
ence, Mishref, Kuwait, 11 October, 2015 Paper SPE-175407-MS.
[13] S. Berg, H.O. Ott, Stability of CO2-Brine Immiscible Displacement, Int. J Greenhouse
Gas Control 11 (2012) 188–203.
[14] D. Wreath, G.A. Pope, K. Sepehrnoori, Dependence of polymer apparent viscosity on the
permeable media, and flow conditions, Situ 14 (3) (1990) 263–284.
[15] W.J. Cannella, C. Huh, R.S. Seright, Prediction of xanthan rheology in porous media.
Paper SPE 18089 presented at the SPE annual technical conference and exhibition,
Houston, Texas, 2–5 October, 1988.
[16] G. Chauveteau, Molecular Interpretation of Several Different Properties of Flow of Coil
Polymer Solutions through Porous Media in Oil Recovery Conditions. SPE 10060, SPE
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 4–7 October, San Antonio, Texas, 1981,
https://doi.org/10.2118/10060-MS.
[17] D. Koroteev, O. Dinariev, N. Evseev, D. Klemin, S. Safonov, O. Gurpinar, Application of
Digital Rock Technology for Chemical EOR Screening, EORC 2013 - SPE Enhanced Oil
Recovery Conference- 2-4 July, 2013 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, paper SPE 165258.
[18] A. Groisman, V. Steinberg, Nature (London) 405 (2000) 53.
[19] S.J. Haward, G.H. Mckinley, A.Q. Shen, Sci. Rep. 6 (2016) 1.
[20] S. De, S. Das, J.A.M. Kuipers, E. Peters, J.T. Padding, A coupled finite volume immersed
boundary method for simulating 3D viscoelastic flows in complex geometries, J. Non-
Newtonian Fluid Mech. 232 (2022) 67–76.
[21] S. De, S.P. Koesen, R.V. Maitri, M. Golombok, J.T. Padding, J.F.M. van Santvoort, Flow
of viscoelastic surfactants through porous media, AICHE J. 64 (2) (2022) 773–781.
[22] S. De, J.A.M. Kuipers, E. Peters, J.T. Padding, Viscoelastic flow simulations in random
porous media, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 248 (2022) 50–61.
[23] S. De, J.A.M. Kuipers, E.A.J.F. Peters, J.T. Padding, Soft Matter 13 (2017) 9138.
Further reading
[1] L.W. Lake, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Vol 1, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1996.
[2] K.S. Sorbie, Polymer-Improved Oil Recovery, Blackie & Son Ltd, London, 1991.
[3] A. Thomas, Essentials of Polymer Flooding Techniques, Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.
[4] M. Balhoff, Modeling of the flow of non-Newtonian fluids in packed beds at the pore
scale, Ph.D. Thesis, Louisiana State University, 2000.
S. De, S. Berg
Dr. Shauvik De is a researcher at Shell technology center Ban-
galore, India, and a part of the Computational Science group.
Shauvik’ s main research area is complex multiphase fluid flow
in porous media, reactive fluid flow and reaction engineering
for applications in novel sustainable technology development
& maturation for energy transition (example. gas to chemicals,
process electrification, novel catalytic reactors). Shauvik holds
a PhD degree in complex fluid flow, from TU Eindhoven (Prof.
Hans Kuipers) & TU Delft (Prof. Johan Padding), and a Master’s
in chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay. Shauvik is a recipient
of American Physical Society - Scilight Award 2017, Dow Indus-
trial Challenge award (2015), Shell-NWO scholarship (2013),
GE foundation Scholarship (2009). Shauvik has published mul-
tiple peer reviewed papers and has filed five patents.
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Science Talks 3 (2022) 100036
Steffen Berg is a Principal Science Expert at Shell Global Solu-
tions International B.V. in the Netherlands. His main research
interests range from the fundamental aspects of multiphase flow
in porous media to CO2 sequestration and EOR. He holds a mas-
ter’s degree in materials science from the University of the Saar-
land and a PhD in physics from the University of Mainz / Max
Planck Institute for Polymer Research at Mainz, Germany.
After a postdoc at Princeton University, he joined Shell as a
research scientist. He is currently also a visiting reader in the
Earth Science & Engineering and Chemical Engineering depart-
ments at Imperial College London.