Influence of Initial Water Saturation on Recovery by Spontaneous Imbibition in Gas/Water/Rock Systems and the Calculation of Relative Permeability

Li, Kewen; Chow, Kevin; Horne, Roland N.

doi:10.2118/99329-pa

Cited by 50 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It is found from Table 2 that values of the time exponent lie in the range of 0.07-0.50. The porosities of experimental Table 3 Comparisons on the experimental and analytical results for time exponent from building material samples (Karoglou et al 2005 Table 4 Comparisons on the experimental and analytical results for time exponent from chalk (Li and Horne 2004), Berea (Li et al 2006), and Bentonite clay (Brú and Pastor 2006 samples such as paper, fabrics, and paper were not provided in their tests. So, the comparison between the model predictions and experimental results is not provided in Table 2.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Karoglou et al presented a simple first-order kinetic model, which can be used to predict the capillary rise height as a function of average pore radius. The present model predictions are also compared to the experimental data from chalk (Li and Horne 2004), Berea (Li et al 2006), and Bentonite clay (Brú and Pastor 2006) as shown in Table 4. From Tables 3 and 4 it is found that the present model predictions of the time exponent k increase with porosity increasing.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many investigators in their experiments used different samples such as cotton and polyester woven fabric (De Boer 1980), knitted fabrics (Zhuang et al 2002), paper (Eklund and Salminen 1986;Family et al 1992;Horváh and Stanley 1995;Kwon et al 1996;Dubé et al 2000;Balankin et al 2006), Berea (Ma et al 1995;Li et al 2006), glass beads (Delker et al 1996;Li and Horne 2001), Bentonite clay (Brú and Pastor 2006), building materials (Balankin et al 2006). Numerical stimulation studies of porous media (Dubé et al 1999;Lam and Horváth 2000) showed that the LW equation is unsatisfactory when it was applied to the experimental data from capillary imbibition of water, as collected in Table 2.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Discussion of the Effect of Tortuosity on the Capillary Imbibition in Porous Media

2011

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In the past decades, there was considerable controversy over the LucasWashburn (LW) equation widely applied in capillary imbibition kinetics. Many experimental results showed that the time exponent of the LW equation is less than 0.5. Based on the tortuous capillary model and fractal geometry, the effect of tortuosity on the capillary imbibition in wetting porous media is discussed in this article. The average height growth of wetting liquid in porous media driven by capillary force following the L s (t) ∼ t 1/2D T law is obtained (here D T is the fractal dimension for tortuosity, which represents the heterogeneity of flow in porous media). The LW law turns out to be the special case when the straight capillary tube (D T = 1) is assumed. The predictions by the present model for the time exponent for capillary imbibition in porous media are compared with available experimental data, and the present model can reproduce approximately the global trend of variation of the time exponent with porosity changing.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Discussion of the Effect of Tortuosity on the Capillary Imbibition in Porous Media

2011

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“…Many papers have been published to characterize and scale spontaneous water imbibition in both oil/water/rock systems Tong et al 2001;Zhou et al 2001;Babadagli 2001;Kashchiev and Firoozabadi 2002;Civan and Rasmussen 2001;Akin et al 2000;Cil et al 1998;Perkins and Collins 1960;Mattax and Kyte 1962;Du Prey 1978;Hamon and Vidal 1986;Reis and Cil 1993;Cuiec et al 1994;Ma et al 1995;Chen et al 1995;Zhang et al 1996;Al-Lawati and Saleh 1996;Babadagli 1997;Li and Horne 2002) and gas/liquid/rock systems Horne 2001, 2004a;Li et al 2006;Handy 1960). However, few have included the effects of capillary pressure, relative permeability (both wetting and nonwetting phases), wettability, and gravity simultaneously.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalized Scaling Approach for Spontaneous Imbibition: An Analytical Model

Li¹,

Horne²

2006

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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102

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Scaling the experimental data of spontaneous imbibition without serious limitations has been difficult. To this end, a general approach was developed to scale the experimental data of spontaneous imbibition for most systems (gas/liquid/rock and oil/water/ rock systems) in both cocurrent and countercurrent cases. We defined a dimensionless time with almost all the parameters considered. These include porosity, permeability, size, shape, boundary conditions, wetting-and nonwetting-phase relative permeabilities, interfacial tension (IFT), wettability, and gravity. The definition of the dimensionless time was not empirical; instead, it was based on theoretical analysis of the fluid-flow mechanisms that govern spontaneous imbibition. The general scaling method was confirmed against the experimental data from spontaneous water imbibition conducted at different IFTs in oil-saturated rocks with different sizes and permeabilities. A general analytical solution to the relationship between recovery and imbibition time for linear spontaneous imbibition was derived. The analytical solution predicts a linear correlation between the imbibition rate and the reciprocal of the recovery by spontaneous imbibition in most fluid/ fluid/rock systems. IntroductionAn important fluid-flow phenomenon during water injection or aquifer invasion into reservoirs is spontaneous water imbibition. Scaling the experimental data of spontaneous water imbibition in different fluid/fluid/rock systems is of essential importance in designing the water-injection projects and predicting the reservoir production performances. Ignoring the effects of relative permeability, capillary pressure, and gravity in the dimensionless time might be the reason that the existing scaling methods do not always function successfully. It is known that these parameters influence the spontaneous imbibition in porous media significantly. For that reason, these parameters should be honored properly in the scaling.Many papers have been published to characterize and scale spontaneous water imbibition in both oil/water/rock systems (Li et al.

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“…The porous-medium approach was used to calculate two-phase relative permeabilities. Li et al (2006) and Li and Horne (2008) proposed a numerical-simulation approach without direct specification of relative permeability functions. Using this approach, it was not necessary to impose relative permeability functions as input to the simulator to conduct the numerical simulations of two-phase fluid flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Characteristics of Relative Permeability Curves in Naturally Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

Lian

Cheng

2012

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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In naturally fractured reservoirs, fractures are the main flowing channels, while matrix is the dominant storage space. The oil/water relative permeability curve for the fracture in this kind of reservoir is very important for water-injection field development. In this study, we conducted experiments on the oil/water relative permeability of carbonate cores from Kenkiyak oil field and compared the differences in relative permeability curves between natural matrix cores and artificial-fractured cores. After the fracturing process, the two-phase flow area of tested cores becomes narrower, the permeability of the equal-permeability point gets higher, the relative permeability curve rises or drops more rapidly, and the displacement recovery efficiency decreases. The stress-sensitivity characteristics of the relative permeability curves were also studied on the basis of experiments on naturally fractured cores. With increasing effective confining pressure, the irreducible water saturation increases, the residual-oil saturation changes slightly, the equal-permeability point moves downward, and the displacement recovery efficiency declines. Numerical-simulation results indicate that for a given recovery factor, the water cut would increase more slowly but ultimate recovery factor would decrease using the relative permeability curve under higher confining pressure. Therefore, the water injection should be operated when the reservoir pressure is relatively higher to maintain formation pressure during waterflooding and lower the impact of stress sensitivity accordingly.

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Influence of Initial Water Saturation on Recovery by Spontaneous Imbibition in Gas/Water/Rock Systems and the Calculation of Relative Permeability

Cited by 50 publications

References 10 publications

A Discussion of the Effect of Tortuosity on the Capillary Imbibition in Porous Media

A Discussion of the Effect of Tortuosity on the Capillary Imbibition in Porous Media

Generalized Scaling Approach for Spontaneous Imbibition: An Analytical Model

The Characteristics of Relative Permeability Curves in Naturally Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

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