Development of scaling criteria for enhanced oil recovery: A review

Scaling criteria are used to evaluate the performance of a reservoir by deriving dimensionless groups which affect a specific enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. The relationships among different process controlling factors are investigated in this approach by comparing the dimensionless numbers. Scaling criteria can capture continuous alteration of rock and fluid properties related to fluid flow through porous media which can be characterized by different dimensionless groups. In this study, a critical review of scaling criteria development is made based on published inspectional and dimensional analyses of fluid flow through porous media for oil-water displacement processes. This paper provides the basic concepts of scaling and dimensionless groups along with the review of recent works on scaling criteria development for EOR processes. This paper discusses how scaling criteria are developed using the existing techniques and reviews both their merits and demerits. The history of dimensional analysis is reviewed, starting with the first notions of dimensions to the powerful methods of recent times. This study reviews briefly some relevant analytical and semi-analytical works which are related to scaled model development for petroleum reservoirs. Understanding the basics of these mechanisms will assist petroleum engineers to analyze, design and evaluate EOR processes. This study will also help in developing dimensionless mathematical models for fluid flow through porous media.