New Rheological Correlations for Guar Foam Fluids

Abstract

Summary Foams provide a highly attractive alternative to conventional non-Newtonian fluids for various oil and gas applications because of their high viscosity and low liquid content. Foams have a long history of proven performance in well stimulations, drilling, acidizing, cleanout operations, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Foam apparent viscosity is used in hydraulic (pressure drop) calculations for various pumping operations. Thus, accurate rheological characterization is very important to predict foam viscosity. In this investigation, rheological experiments are carried out with guar gel and guar foam fluids with a ½-in.-pipe viscometer at 1,000 psi and temperatures ranging from 100 to 200°F. Guar, surfactant, and nitrogen (N2) are used as the gelling agent, foaming agent, and gas phase, respectively. Formulations were prepared and tested at several flow rates for qualities ranging from 0 to 80%. This study has shown that both guar gel and guar foam fluids exhibit behavior analogous to the power-law model fluid. The experimental data are used to develop new rheological correlations to predict power-law fluid-flow parameters and, thus, the apparent viscosity of the foam fluids. These new correlations are functions of temperature, foam quality, shear rate, and fluid concentrations and were compared with various published correlations. The available correlations in the literature have assumed that the foam's flow behavior index is similar to that of the liquid phase. This assumption does not support the basic physics that the increase in viscosity decreases the flow behavior index. Our results show that the previous assumption is invalid and leads to a prediction of extremely low apparent viscosity for foam fluids. In contrast to previous studies, we report high apparent viscosities of high-quality foam fluids.