Qualification of New Methods for Measuring In Situ Rheology of Non-Newtonian Fluids in Porous Media.

Pressure drop () versus volumetric injection rate () data from linear core floods have typically been used to measure in situ rheology of non-Newtonian fluids in porous media. However, linear flow is characterized by steady-state conditions, in contrast to radial flow where both pressure and shear-forces have non-linear gradients. In this paper, we qualify recently developed methods for measuring in situ rheology in radial flow experiments, and then quantitatively investigate the robustness of these methods against pressure measurement error.