Seepage model and experiments of drag reduction by nanoparticle adsorption

The hydrophobic nanoparticle (HNP) adsorption is a new technique of drag reduction, which changes the wettability of the porous walls of the core, generates the slip-boundary of the fluid flow and consequently enhances the oil recovery. In the present work, a seepage model with consideration of the slip effect in the micro-channels and the influence of the equivalent pore radius modified by the HNP adsorption is proposed based on the Darcy's law. The permeability of the non-wetting phase in the porous media is calculated according to its dependence on the slip length, while the slip length is determined by a function of the contact angle and the equivalent pore radius. Numerical simulations are performed by use of the COMSOL multiphysics, and an acceptable agreement between experimental and simulation results is achieved (with an error less than 2.5%). The present model can then be used for the mechanism investigation and the prediction of the oilfield performance.