Engineering performance of additives in water floods

The viscosity of a chemically modified injector fluid measured in a rheometer is a poor indicator of behaviour in the reservoir i.e. pressure driven permeable flow. The three classical types of viscosity assessment are only linked for a rather restricted set of conditions. Increasing use of non-Newtonian injection fluids involves additional permeable flow resistance components over and above that attributable to shear viscosity. The main two sources are viscoelastic and extensional viscosity effects. We review these and show how extra effects can also be observed in aperture flow. Undeveloped conduit flow as observed in fractures is the linking feature between resistance to flow in pipes and resistance to flow in porous media.