Start
Jan 02, 2012 - 16:00
End
Jan 02, 2012 - 17:00
Venue
Room 118 (Ground Floor) Chemical Engineering
Event Type
Speaker
Dr. Jagan Mahadevan University of Tulsa
Title
IMPACT OF CAPILLARY-DRIVEN LIQUID FILMS ON SALT CRYSTALLIZATION
ABSTRACT: Dissolved salts in reservoir brines can precipitate due to supersaturation caused by flow through drying. Using a mathematical model that takes into account the transport of salts through capillary driven films it is shown that an accumulation of solid salt can take place. The extent of salt accumulation depends on the dimensionless capillary wicking number and the dimensionless pressure drops. At high wicking numbers and pressure drops supersaturation of brine takes place in the higher drying rate regions in the porous medium and hence precipitation of the salts leading to higher solid salt saturation. Results from experiments of flow-through drying in rock cores are compared with model prediction of salt crystallization and accumulation. In gas wells with radial flow into the wellbore supersaturation may result in the near wellbore region leading to a reduction in the near wellbore permeability.BIO-SKETCH: Dr. Jagan Mahadevan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at The University of Tulsa. He holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Central Electrochemical Research Institute India and MS PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He received the John and Mary Booker graduate fellowship at The University of Texas. His research interests are in prediction and optimization of well performance of unconventional reservoirs such as tight gas sands shale gas and heavy oils. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He serves as a technical editor for the SPE Reservoir Engineering & Evaluation and the SPE Journals. He has also been elected to serve as an Associate Editor of the SPE Journal.