Modeling of multiphase flow in low permeability porous media:Effect of wettability and pore structure properties

Multiphase flow in low permeability porous media is involved in numerous energy and environmental applications.However,a complete description of this process is challenging due to the limited modeling scale and the effects of complex pore structures and wettability.To address this issue,based on the digital rock of low permeability sandstone,a direct numerical simulation is performed considering the interphase drag and boundary slip to clarify the microscopic water-oil displacement process.In addition,a dual-porosity pore network model(PNM)is constructed to obtain the water-oil relative permeability of the sample.The displacement efficiency as a recovery process is assessed under different wetting and pore structure properties.Results show that microscopic displacement mechanisms explain the corresponding macroscopic relative permeability.The injected water breaks through the outlet earlier with a large mass flow,while thick oil films exist in rough hydrophobic surfaces and poorly connected pores.The variation of water-oil relative permeability is significant,and residual oil saturation is high in the oil-wet system.The flooding is extensive,and the residual oil is trapped in complex pore networks for hydrophilic pore surfaces;thus,water relative permeability is lower in the water-wet system.While the displacement efficiency is the worst in mixed-wetting systems for poor water connectivity.Microporosity negatively correlates with invading oil volume fraction due to strong capillary resistance,and a large microporosity corresponds to low residual oil saturation.This work provides insights into the water-oil flow from different modeling perspectives and helps to optimize the development plan for enhanced recovery.

An overview on nonlinear porous flow in low permeability porous media

This paper gives an overview on nonlinear porous flow in low permeability porous media, reveals the microscopic mechanisms of flows, and clarifies properties of porous flow fluids. It shows that, deviating from Darcy＇s linear law, the porous flow characteristics obey a nonlinear law in a low-permeability porous medium, and the viscosity of the porous flow fluid and the permeability values of water and oil are not constants. Based on these characters, a new porous flow model, which can better describe low permeability reservoir~ is established. This model can describe various patterns of porous flow, as Darcy＇s linear law does. All the parameters involved in the model, having definite physical meanings, can be obtained directly from the experiments.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF TWO-PHASE FLUID NONLINEAR FLOW IN LOW-PERMEABILITY POROUS MEDIA WITH APPLICATIONS

A mathematical model of two-phase fluid nonlinear flow in the direction of normal of ellipse through low-permeability porous media was established according to a nonlinear flow law expressed in a continuous function with three parameters, a mass conservation law and a concept of turbulent ellipses. A solution to the model was obtained by using a finite difference method and an extrapolation method. Formulas of calculating development index not only before but also after water breaks through an oil well in the condition of two-phase fluid nonlinear flow in the media were derived. An example was discussed. Water saturation distribution was presented. The moving law of drainage front was found. Laws of change of pressure difference with time were recognized. Results show that there is much difference of water saturation distribution between nonlinear flow and linear flow; that drainage front by water moves faster, water breaks through sooner and the index gets worse because of the nonlinear flow; and that dimensionless pressure difference gets larger at the same dimensionless time and difficulty of oil development becomes bigger by the nonlinear flow. Thus, it is necessary that influence of nonlinear flow on development indexes of the oil fields be taken into account. The results provide water-flooding development of the oilfields with scientific basis.

Analytical solution of a double moving boundary problem for nonlinear flows in one-dimensional semi-infinite long porous media with low permeability

Based on Huang＇s accurate tri-sectional nonlin- ear kinematic equation （1997）, a dimensionless simplified mathematical model for nonlinear flow in one-dimensional semi-infinite long porous media with low permeability is presented for the case of a constant flow rate on the inner boundary. This model contains double moving boundaries, including an internal moving boundary and an external mov- ing boundary, which are different from the classical Stefan problem in heat conduction： The velocity of the external moving boundary is proportional to the second derivative of the unknown pressure function with respect to the distance parameter on this boundary. Through a similarity transfor- mation, the nonlinear partial differential equation （PDE） sys- tem is transformed into a linear PDE system. Then an ana- lytical solution is obtained for the dimensionless simplified mathematical model. This solution can be used for strictly checking the validity of numerical methods in solving such nonlinear mathematical models for flows in low-permeable porous media for petroleum engineering applications. Finally, through plotted comparison curves from the exact an- alytical solution, the sensitive effects of three characteristic parameters are discussed. It is concluded that with a decrease in the dimensionless critical pressure gradient, the sensi- tive effects of the dimensionless variable on the dimension- less pressure distribution and dimensionless pressure gradi- ent distribution become more serious; with an increase in the dimensionless pseudo threshold pressure gradient, the sensi- tive effects of the dimensionless variable become more serious; the dimensionless threshold pressure gradient （TPG） has a great effect on the external moving boundary but has little effect on the internal moving boundary.

Enduring effect of permeability texture for enhancing accuracy and reducing uncertainty of reservoir fluid flow through porous media

Modeling reservoir permeability is one of the crucial tasks in reservoir simulation studies.Traditionally,it is done by kriging-based methods.More rigorous modeling of the permeability results in more reliable outputs of the reservoir models.Recently,a new category of geostatistical methods has been used for this purpose,namely multiple point statistics(MPS).By this new category of permeability modeling methods,one is able to predict the heterogeneity of the reservoir permeability as a continuous variable.These methods consider the direction of property variation in addition to the distances of known locations of the property.In this study,the reservoir performance of a modified version of the SPE 10 solution project as a pioneer case is used for investigating the efficiency of these methods and paralleling them with the kriging-based one.In this way,the permeability texture concept is introduced by applying some MPS methods.This study is accomplished in the conditions of real reservoir dimensions and velocities for the whole reservoir life.A continuous training image is used as the input of calculation for the permeability modeling.The results show that the detailed permeability of the reservoir as a continuous variable makes the reservoir simulation show the same fluid front movement and flooding behavior of the reservoir similar to the reference case with the same permeability heterogeneity.Some MPS methods enable the reservoir simulation to reproduce the fluid flow complexities such as bypassing and oil trapping during water flooding similar to the reference case.Accordingly,total oil production is predicted with higher accuracy and lower uncertainty.All studied cases are identical except for the permeability texture.Even histograms and variograms of permeabilities for the studied reservoir are quite similar,but the performance of the reservoir shows that kriging-based method results have slightly less accuracy than some MPS methods.Meanwhile,it results in lower uncertainty in outputs for this water flooding case performance.

The Construction Method for Solving Radial Flow Problem through the Homogeneous Reservoir

On the basis of similar structure of solutions of ordinary differential equation (ODE) boundary value problem, the similar construction method was put forward by solving problems of fluid flow in porous media through the homogeneous reservoir. It is indicate that the pressure distribution of dimensionless reservoir and bottom hole in Laplace space, which take on the radial flow, also shows similar structure, and the internal relationship between the above solutions were illustrated in detail.

THEORY OF FLUID-SOLID COUPLED FLOW THROUGH FRACTURED LOW-PERMEABILITY OIL RESERVOIR AND ITS APPLICATIONS

During the development of low permeability reservoirs. the interaction between fluid flow and rock mass deformation is obvious. On the basis of fluid mechanics in porous media and elasto plastic theory. the author presents an equivalent continuum model to simulate fluid flow in fractured low permeability oil reservoir coupled with geo stress. The model not only reflects the porosity change of matrix, but also the permeability change due to the opening and closing of fracture. By analyzing of simulation results, the changes in porosity and permeability and their effect on oil development are studied.

Transient pressure analysis in porous and fractured fractal reservoirs

Fluid flow in porous and fractured fractal reservoirs is studied in the paper. The basic formulae of seepage velocity,permeability and porosity in both porous and fractured fractal media are developed. The pressure diffusion equation of slightly compressible fluid in fractal reservoirs is derived. The analytical solutions of the transient pressure are given for the line-source well and the well with well-bore storage and skin factor. The typical curves of pressure and the derivative of pressure are established,along with the interpretation of the well-testing method via type-curve matching. In addition,3-D pressure diffusion equations for anisotropic fractal media are given in both Cartesian coordinates and Cy-lindrical coordinates.

Modern methods of underground hydromechanics with applications to reservoir engineering

In the report the basic principles of new approach to the study of transport processes in porous medium are represented. The ＂percolation＂ approach has arisen as an attempt to overcome the traditional phenomenological approach in the underground hydromechanics, based on the assumption of continuity of saturated porous media, which does not allow to explain and to model a number of effects arising from the fluids flow in porous media. The results obtained are very interesting not only from the scientific point of view but as the scientific basis for a number of enhanced oil recovery technologies.