Effect of shear thickening property of polymer on relative permeability

Abstract

Abstract The relative permeability at a high Darcy velocity was estimated by combining a numerical simulation model that considers the rheology of polymer in shear thickening region. After verifying the robustness of the method, the effect of shear thickening property of polymer on relative permeability was studied. The results show that when Darcy velocity exceeds 17.61 m/d, the apparent relative viscosity of polymer solution begins to increase, and the rheology of polymer changes from shear thinning to shear thickening behavior, which reduces water relative permeability. For water relative permeability model, as Darcy velocity increases, water relative permeability at residual oil decreases in a power function and exponent of water relative permeability model increases linearly.