Foam flooding is an effective method for enhancing oil recovery in high water-cut reservoirs and unconventional reservoirs. It is a dynamic process that includes foam generation and coalescence when foam flows through porous media. In this study, a foam flooding simulation model was established based on the population balance model. The stabilizing effect of the polymer and the coalescence characteristics when foam encounters oil were considered. The numerical simulation model was fitted and verified through a one-dimensional displacement experiment. The pressure difference across the sand pack in single foam flooding and polymer-enhanced foam flooding both agree well with the simulation results. Based on the numerical simulation, the foam distribution characteristics in different cases were studied. The results show that there are three zones during foam flooding: the foam growth zone, stable zone, and decay zone. These characteristics are mainly influenced by the adsorption of surfactant, the gas–liquid ratio, the injection rate, and the injection scheme. The oil recovery of polymer-enhanced foam flooding is estimated to be 5.85% more than that of single foam flooding. Moreover, the growth zone and decay zone in three dimensions are considerably wider than in the one-dimensional model. In addition, the slug volume influences the oil recovery the most in the foam enhanced foam flooding, followed by the oil viscosity and gas-liquid ratio. The established model can describe the dynamic change process of foam, and can thus track the foam distribution underground and aid in optimization of the injection strategies during foam flooding.

泡沫驱是提高高含水率油藏和非常规油藏中石油采收率的有效方法。这是一个动态过程，其中包括当泡沫流过多孔介质时泡沫的产生和聚结。在这项研究中，建立了基于人口平衡模型的泡沫驱模拟模型。考虑了当泡沫遇到油时聚合物的稳定作用和聚结特性。通过一维位移实验拟合并验证了数值模拟模型。单次泡沫驱和聚合物增强泡沫驱中沙包的压差均与模拟结果吻合良好。在数值模拟的基础上，研究了不同情况下的泡沫分布特征。结果表明，在泡沫驱油过程中存在三个区域：泡沫生长区域，稳定区域和衰减区域。这些特性主要受表面活性剂的吸附，气液比，注入速率和注入方案的影响。估计聚合物增强泡沫驱油的采收率比单一泡沫驱油的采收率高5.85％。此外，在三个维度上的生长区和衰减区比一维模型中的要宽得多。此外，在泡沫增强型泡沫驱油中，段塞体积对油的采收率影响最大，其次是油的粘度和气液比。建立的模型可以描述泡沫的动态变化过程，从而可以跟踪地下的泡沫分布，并有助于在泡沫驱替过程中优化注入策略。