This study experimentally investigated Free-Fall Gravity Drainage (FFGD) under combination-drive conditions in a two-dimensional Hele-Shaw model representing a water-drive reservoir. An initially high gravity potential from the oil column enabled early oil drainage before aquifer support became dominant. Three water-drive strengths were tested, demonstrating that a stronger aquifer (1.15 psig) accelerated oil recovery to approximately 75% of the original oil in place (OOIP) within 60 minutes, resulting in a final recovery of 79.5%. However, this was accompanied by rapid water breakthrough after 2.5 minutes and high-water cuts exceeding 90%. In contrast, a weaker aquifer (0.725 psig) stabilized the oil–water contact, delaying water encroachment and maintaining zero water cut throughout 240 minutes, albeit with a lower ultimate recovery of 70.2%. Visual observations confirmed that a stable water crest and oil bank were preserved longer under moderate to weak aquifer pressures, extending the gravity-dominated recovery and reducing water handling requirements. Residual oil saturation was higher under weak aquifer support (27.9%) than stronger water drive (16.8%) due to a loss of gravity potential as the oil column declined and limited aquifer support. A comparative experiment in a heterogeneous system revealed approximately 22% lower ultimate recovery and water breakthrough within 5 minutes, attributed to heterogeneity promoting preferential flow, poor sweep efficiency, and early breakthrough. In contrast, the homogeneous system sustained production with no water breakthrough for 300 minutes. These insights strengthen the understanding of gravity drainage and can help guide enhanced oil recovery strategies in water-drive reservoirs.
ABSTRACT In dam construction stages when an earth embankment has retained a reservoir with constant water surface elevation for a long time, seepage conditions within the embankment will be reach a steady state. If it is necessary to drain the reservoir quickly, the pore-water pressures in the embankment may remain relatively high while the stabling effect of the reservoir's weight along the upstream (U/S) side for the embankment has removed. This process is referring to as "Rapid Drawdown" and may be cause instability in the upstream (U/S) face of the embankment. Kongele dam is one of the proposed earth dams to be implement within the current plan in Iraq. The authors study pore water pressure and the effect of rapid drawdown for the dam d
... Show MoreStripping is one of the major distresses within asphalt concrete pavements caused due to penetration of water within the interface of asphalt-aggregate matrix. In this work, one grade of asphalt cement (40-50) was mixed with variable percentages of three types of additives (fly ash, fumed silica, and phosphogypsum) to obtained an modified asphalt cement to resist the effect of stripping phenomena .The specimens have been tested for physical properties according to AASHTO. The surface free energy has been measured by using two methods namely, the wilhelmy technique and the Sessile drop method according to NCHRP-104
procedures. Samples of asphalt concrete using different asphalt cement and modified asphalt cement percentages(4.1,4.6 an
Background: Debonding and fracture of artificial teeth from denture bases are common clinical problem, bonding of artificial teeth to heat cure acrylic and high impact heat cure acrylic denture base materials with autoclave processing method is not well known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of autoclave processing method on shear bond of artificial teeth to heat cure denture base material and high impact heat cure denture base material. Materials and methods: Heat polymerized (Vertex) and high impact acrylic (Vertex) acrylic resins were used. Teeth were processed to each of the denture base materials after the application of different surface treatments. The sample (which consist of artificial tooth attached to the dentur
... Show MoreAsmari is the main productive reservoir in Abu Ghirab oilfield in the south-east part of Iraq. It has history production extends from 1976 up to now with several close periods. Recently, the reservoir suffers some problems in production, which are abstracted as water production rising with oil production declining in most wells. The water problem type of the field and wells is identified by using Chan's diagnostic plots (water oil ratio (WOR) and derivative water oil ratio (WOR') against time). The analytical results show that water problem is caused by the channeling due to high permeability zones, high water saturation zones, and faults or fracturing. The numerical approach is also used to study the water movement inside the reser
... Show MoreAsmari is the main productive reservoir in Abu Ghirab oilfield in the south-east part of Iraq. It has history production extends from 1976 up to now with several close periods. Recently, the reservoir suffers some problems in production, which are abstracted as water production rising with oil production declining in most wells. The water problem type of the field and wells is identified by using Chan's diagnostic plots (water oil ratio (WOR) and derivative water oil ratio (WOR') against time). The analytical results show that water problem is caused by the channeling due to high permeability zones, high water saturation zones, and faults or fracturing. The numerical approach is also used to study the water movement insi
... Show MoreMishrif Formation is the main reservoir in oil-fields (North Rumaila, South Rumaila, Majnoon, Zubair and West Qurna) which located at Basrah southern Iraq. The Inductively coupled plasma-Mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) was used for the water chemistry analysis and Scanning Electron Microprobe (SEM) for the purpose of mineralogy diagnosis. A weak acidic water of salinity six-time greater than seawater plays a role in generating the formation pressure and controlling the fluid flow. The potentiometric subsurface maps were modeled and the direction of super-pressure sites that are of a great importance in the oil exploration were marked to pay attention during future drilling.
In oil and gas well cementing, a strong cement sheath is wanted to insure long-term safety of the wells. Successful completion of cementing job has become more complex, as drilling is being done in highly deviated and high pressure-high temperature wells. Use of nano materials in enhanced oil recovery, drilling fluid, oil well cementing and other applications is being investigated. This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of nano materials on oil well cement properties. Two types of nano materials were investigated, which are Nano silica (>40 nm) and Nano Alumina (80 nm) and high sulfate-resistant glass G cement is used. The investigated properties of oil well cement included compressive strength, thickening
... Show MoreThe type of groundwater in the studied area is slightly brackish. In general, the dominant water type is calcium-sulfate. The reasons behind these different chemical groundwater types can be referred to the active ion exchange between the groundwater of the Dammam aquifer and Rus Formation. The groundwater of the Dammam unconfined aquifer is not suitable for human drinking in all the parameters properties. The groundwater class is fair in the Qasir Al-Ukhaider area, while the Shebcha area and Al-Salman area are poor class except the eastern part of Al-Salman area is very poor.