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Application of SiO2–water nanofluid to enhance oil recovery

A new hybrid optimization approach using pattern search and PSO algorithms

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Abstract

The present study aims to investigate effects of nanofluid flooding on EOR and also compares its performance with water flooding in field scale using the published experimental data provided from core-scale studies. The nanofluid is based on water including silica nanoparticles. The relative permeability curves of water, nanofluid and oil for a light crude oil core sample obtained in an experimental study are used in this numerical investigation. A 2D heterogeneous reservoir model is constructed using the permeability and porosity of the last layer of SPE-10 model. It has been shown that nanofluid flooding can substantially improve the oil recovery in comparison with the water flooding case. Afterward, the operational parameters of the 13 injection and production wells have been optimized in order to meet the maximum cumulative oil production. First, pattern search (PS) algorithm was implemented which has a good convergence speed, but with a high probability of trapping in local optimum points. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach has also been employed, which requires a large number of population (to approach the global optimum) with so many simulations. Accordingly, a hybrid PSO–PS algorithm with confined domain is proposed. The hybrid algorithm starts with PSO and depending on the distribution density of the values of each parameter, confines the searching domain and provides a proper initial guess to be used by PS. It is concluded that the hybrid PSO–PS method could obtain the optimal solution with a high convergence speed and reduced possibility of trapping in local optimums.

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  1. Applied Multi-Phase Fluid Dynamics Lab., School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Heydarkhani St., Narmak, Tehran, 1684613114, Iran

    Milad Ramezanpour & Majid Siavashi

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  1. Milad Ramezanpour
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  2. Majid Siavashi
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Correspondence to Majid Siavashi.

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Ramezanpour, M., Siavashi, M. Application of SiO2–water nanofluid to enhance oil recovery. J Therm Anal Calorim 135, 565–580 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7156-4

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