An Experimental Study of Heat Flow in Steam Flooding
Authors: Baker P.E. 
Published: December 2007

An experimental study of beat flow in steam flooding was carried out with steam displacing water in a plane-radial fluid-flow model. Temperature distributions in the model reservoir, overburden, and substratum were measured at frequent intervals during flooding by means of a fixed array of thermocouples. Heat losses to overburden and substratum and the division of beat between The steam and hot-water zones in the reservoir were calculated from the temperature data by performing numerical integrations over the appropriate volumes. Temperature profiles and heat distribution results are presented.

Some results were (1) the traction of injected beat that is lost to overburden and substratum, when expressed as a junction of time, did not depend on injection rate; (2) a significant portion of the injected heat was contained in the hot-water zone ahead of and underlying the steam front in the reservoir. The division of beat between the steam and hot-water zones did depend on injection rate; and (3) considerable gravity override was observed.

The experimental results are compared with those of several published theoretical studies of beat transfer in hot-fluid injection; approximate agreement on beat losses is found with some of the most idealized theories. A valid comparison cannot be made in regard to steam vs hot-water zone; basic interpretation of the hot-water zone, in terms of a vertical steam front, is clouded by gravity override in the experiments.

Introduction

The experimental study reported here primarily concerns two problems of heat transfer in steam Hooding that have economic and engineering importance. These are (1) the fraction of injected heat lost to the overburden and substratum, and (2) the division of the remaining heat between a zone containing steam and a zone of hot water at lower-than-boiling temperature.

The volume of the steamed region, which has a direct effect on oil recovery, can be calculated reads, born these resin. Several valuable theoretical studies have been published on this problem, but no experimental tests of the theories have previously appeared. Tests were needed because the effects of the necessary simplifications in the theories could not be determined otherwise.

The basic, untested theoretical problem is the effect of "decoupling" heat and mass transfer and the resulting inability to include the effects of heat transfer and condensation on fluid flow. The theoretical problem solved so far has been a heat transfer problem in which fluid is present as a heat carrier and flows in a stipulated manner, either linear or plane-radial. The simplifications that have sometimes been made in regard to thermal conductivity by, for example, Marx and Langenheim, Lauwerier and Thomas apparently do not have an important effect on heat loss calculations, although the results of the different methods disagree to a certain extent, as shown by Spillette and by Ramey.

A recent paper by the authors compared the results of experiments in hot-water flooding with several theoretical results and showed a rather poor agreement. It will be seen that the poor agreement. It will be seen that the experimental heat loss results for steam flooding, however, show acceptable agreement. These comparisons are discussed in a later section.