Impact of Capillary and Bond Numbers on Relative Permeability

Abstract

Recovery and recovery rate of oil, gas and condensates depend crucially on their relative permeability. Relative permeability in turn depends on the pore structure, wettability and flooding conditions, which can be represented by a set of dimensionless groups including capillary and bond numbers. The effect of flooding conditions on drainage relative permeabilities is not well understood and is the overall goal of this project. This project has three specific objectives: to improve the centrifuge relative permeability method, to measure capillary and bond number effects experimentally, and to develop a pore network model for multiphase flows. A centrifuge has been built that can accommodate high pressure core holders and x-ray saturation monitoring. The centrifuge core holders can operate at a pore pressure of 6.9 MPa (1000 psi) and an overburden pressure of 17 MPa (2500 psi). The effect of capillary number on residual saturation and relative permeability in drainage flow has been measured. A pore network model has been developed to study the effect of capillary numbers and viscosity ratio on drainage relative permeability. Capillary and Reynolds number dependence of gas-condensate flow has been studied during well testing. A method has been developed to estimate relative permeability parameters from gascondensate well test data.