Rheological Properties Studies on the Steam-foam Drive in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

At the temperature and pressure of reservoirs, the effect of steam saturation, foaming agent concentration, temperature and steam quality on rheological properties of foam oil system in steam flooding zone was studied, with shear rate varying from 0 to 600 s^-1; Meanwhile, the effect of superheated water saturation, foaming agent concentration and temperature on rheological properties of superheated water oil system in superheated water flooding zone was studied when the shear rate ranged from 0 to 100 s^-1. The result shows that foam oil system and superheated water oil system were both pseudoplastic fluids and can be described by power law model. The non-newtonian behavior of foam oil system increases with the increasing of steam saturation and foaming agent concentration and decreases with the increasing of steam quality and temperature. The non-newtonian behavior of superheated water oil system increases with the increasing of foaming agent concentration and decreases with the increasing of superheated water saturation and temperature. At lower shear rate, the apparent viscosity of foam oil system and superheated water oil system is more dependent on temperature, which fits more into the Arrhenius Equation.