A Fundamental Micro Scale Study of the Roles of Associated Gas Content and Different Classes of Hydrocarbons on the Dominant Oil Recovery Mechanism by CWI

Various studies demonstrated new gaseous phase formation and oil swelling and viscosity reduction are the oil recovery mechanisms by carbonated water injection (CWI) with new gaseous phase formation being the major recovery mechanism for live oil systems. However, none of the previous studies investigated the influences of dissolved gas content of the oil and oil composition, on the new gaseous phase. This study attempts to provide insights on this area. Based on the results, during CWI as CO2 partitions into the oil the dissolved gas of the oil liberates, which leads to in-situ new gaseous phase formation. The dissolved gas content of the crude oil has a direct impact on the saturation and growth rate of the new gaseous phase. The new gaseous phase doesn't form for oils that have an infinite capacity for dissolving CO2, such as light pure hydrocarbon components. Oils with limited capacity for dissolving CO2, such as heavy hydrocarbon components, are responsible for the formation of the new gaseous phase. Therefore for a live crude oil, the relatively heavier fractions of oil are responsible for triggering of the new gaseous phase and light to intermediate oil components control the further growth of the new gaseous phase

Radiative Heating in MSL Entry: Comparison of Flight Heating Discrepancy to Ground Test and Predictive Models

During the recent entry of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the heat shield was equipped with thermocouple stacks to measure in-depth heating of the thermal protection system (TPS). When only convective heating was considered, the derived heat flux from gauges in the stagnation region was found to be underpredicted by as much as 17 W/sq cm, which is significant compared to the peak heating of 32 W/sq cm. In order to quantify the contribution of radiative heating phenomena to the discrepancy, ground tests and predictive simulations that replicated the MSL entry trajectory were performed. An analysis is carried through to assess the quality of the radiation model and the impact to stagnation line heating. The impact is shown to be significant, but does not fully explain the heating discrepancy

Low Cost Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Instrumentation for Planetary Missions

No abstract availabl

Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) Enabling Missions Beyond Heritage Carbon Phenolic

Future NASA robotic missions utilizing an entry system into Venus and the outer planets, results in extremely high entry conditions that exceed the capabilities of state of the art low to mid density ablators such as PICA or AVCOAT. Previously, mission planners had to assume the use of fully dense carbon phenolic heatshields similar to what was flown on Pioneer Venus or Galileo. Carbon phenolic is a robust TPS material, however, its high density and relatively high thermal conductivity constrain mission planners to steep entries, with high heat fluxes and pressures and short entry durations. The high entry conditions pose challenges for certification in existing ground based test facilities and the longer-term sustainability of CP will continue to pose challenges. NASA has decided to invest in new technology development rather than invest in reviving carbon phenolic. The HEEET project, funded by STMD is maturing a game changing Woven Thermal Protection System technology. HEEET is a capability development project and is not tied to a single mission or destination, therefore, it is challenging to complete ground testing needed to demonstrate a capability that is much broader than any single mission or destination would require. This presentation will status HEEET progress. Near term infusion target for HEEET is the upcoming New Frontiers (NF-4) class of competitively selected Science Mission Directorate (SMD) missions for which it is incentivized

Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) Enabling Missions Beyond Heritage Carbon Phenolic

This poster provides an overview of the requirements, design, development and testing of the 3D Woven TPS being developed under NASAs Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) project. Under this current program, NASA is working to develop a Thermal Protection System (TPS) capable of surviving entry into Venus or Saturn. A primary goal of the project is to build and test an Engineering Test Unit (ETU) to establish a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 for this technology by 2017

Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) TPS for Ice Giants Probe Missions

This poster provides an overview of the requirements, design, development and testing of the 3D Woven TPS being developed under NASAs Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) project. Under this current program, NASA is working to develop a Thermal Protection System (TPS) capable of surviving entry into Saturn. A primary goal of the project is to build and test an Engineering Test Unit (ETU) to establish a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 for this technology by 2018. Poster also discusses use of HEEET TPS for probe missions to the Ice Giants, Uranus and Neptune

Overview of Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET)

No abstract availabl

A New Methodology for Estimation of Three-Phase Relative Permeability Functions in Heavy-Oil Displacement Involving Instability and Compositional Effects

Simultaneous three-phase flow of gas, oil and water is a common phenomenon in enhanced oil recovery techniques such as Water-Alternating-Gas (WAG) injection. Reliable reservoir simulations are required to predict the performance of these injections before field application. However, most commercial simulators are based on Darcy-type formulation requiring the concept of relative permeability. Generally, three-phase relative permeabilities are calculated from empirical correlations, which are based on two-phase relative permeability. However, heavy oil displacement by gas or water can lead to viscous fingering due to the unfavourable mobility ratio between heavy oil and the displacing fluid. In addition, the injection soluble gases such as CO2 can result in compositional effects. Estimation of three-phase relative permeability under such conditions are extremely complex and using conventional techniques for the estimation can lead to erroneous results. We used the result of three coreflood experiments carried out on a core to generate two-phase and three-phase relative permeability data using an improved history matching methodology that takes into account the instability and the compositional effects in the estimation processes. The results show that a simultaneous CO2 and Water injection (CO2-SWAG) can be adequately matched using a secondary gas/liquid and a tertiary oil/water relative permeabilities. This is because contrary to WAG in conventional oil recovery, where gas and water open up separate saturations paths, in this case, the water follows the gas saturation path due it's lower resistance as a result of the CO2 dissolving in the oil and reducing the oil viscosity. It is also important to include Pc even in high permeable porous media as we observed that the inclusion of capillary pressure dampened the propagation of the viscous fingers and hence helped the front to become stabilised leading to a better sweep efficiency