New Design Method of a Supersonic Steam Injection Nozzle and Its Numerical Simulation Verification

Steam huff-n-puff in horizontal wells often had limitations, such as uneven steam injection and low reservoir utilization. To improve steam injection efficiency, a new method for designing a supersonic nozzle was proposed based on the principles of aerodynamics and thermodynamics. The nozzle featured a tapering section, a throat, and a diverging section. The best geometric shape of the tapering section was the Witoszynski curve. A set of nozzle size designs were established, and the size parameters were optimized. The results showed that the nozzle could inject steam into the formation at supersonic speed and it had the characteristics of constant flow rate and uniform development of the steam chamber. According to the steam Reynolds number and the good aggregation distribution characteristics of the size design model, three sequential nozzles of 3.0, 5.0, and 6.5 mm were formed based on the throat. When the throat diameter was 5.0 mm, the tapering length was 4.3 mm, the diverging length was 5.5 mm, the throat length was 3.0 mm, the inlet diameter was 9.8 mm, and the outlet diameter was 6.2 mm. Numerical simulations indicated that the pressure drop loss during steam huff-n-puff injection in horizontal wells was within 10%. It was of great significance to establish the nozzle size design model of the steam injection effect of horizontal wells.