Youqi dizhi yu caishoulu (May 2024)
Research progress and prospects of surfactant flooding in molecular dynamics simulation
Abstract
Surfactants are widely used in the tertiary recovery of oilfields, and it is of great significance to study the mechanism of surfactant flooding from the microscopic point of view. In recent years, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has become essential for oil and gas field development research. The use of MD simulation to study surfactants has become a hot spot. Through MD simulation, the numerical solutions of Newton’s equations are calculated for all the moving particles in the system, and the change in atomic positions with time is analyzed, from which some laws are found. MD simulation can be used to study the microscopic behavior of surfactant molecules to explore the properties of surfactant molecules and the microscopic flooding mechanism. MD simulation of the movement and aggregation state of surfactants at the interface and the analysis of the influence of surfactant molecules at the interface on the interfacial system are of some guiding significance for the field application of surfactants. To this end, based on the principle overview of MD simulation, firstly, the force field, boundary conditions, system types, and numerical algorithms in MD simulation are summarized; secondly, the microscopic mechanisms of MD simulation of surfactant flooding are highlighted, including the reduction of oil-water interfacial tension, the change in surface wettability, the increase in interfacial charge and emulsification, etc.; then, examples of the application of MD simulation in surfactant flooding are presented. Finally, the development directions of MD simulation technology in surfactant flooding are proposed, including the flooding environment similar to production, the design of new surfactants, the relationship between theory and experiment, the selection of molecular force field and potential energy model, and the research and development of composite and multifunctional integrated surfactants.
Keywords