The Effect of Interfacial Tensions on Relative Oil/Water Permeabilities of Consolidated Porous Media

Abstract

Relative penneabilities of systems containing lowtension additives are needed to develop mechanistic insights as to how injected aqueous chemicals affect fluid distribution and flow behavior. This paper presents results of an experimental investigation of the effect of low interfacial tensions (1FT's) on relative oil/water penneabilities of consolidated porous media.The steady-and unsteady-state displacement methods were used to generate relative penneability curves. Aqueous low-concentration surfactant systems were used to vary 1FT levels. Empirical correlations were developed that relate the imbibition relative penneabilities, apparent viscosity, residual oil, and water saturations to the interfacial tension through the capillary number (Nc =vp.,/a). They require two empirical, experimentally generated coefficients.The experimental results show that the relative oil/water penneabilities at any given saturation are affected substantially by 1FT values lower than 10 -I mN/m. Relative oil/water penneabilities increased with decreasing 1FT (increasing N c ). The residual oil and residual water saturations (Sor and S,,-r) decreased, while the total relative mobilities increased with decreasing 1FT. The correlations predict values of relative oil/water penneability ratios, fractional flow, and residual saturations that agree with our experimental data. Apparent mobility design viscosities decreased exponentially with the capillary number.The results of this study can be used with simulators to predict process perfonnance and efficiency for enhanced oil-recovery projects in which chemicals are considered for use either as waterflood or steam flood additives. However, the combined effect of decreased interfacial tension and increased temperature on relative penneabilities has not yet been studied.

Scale dependency of dynamic relative permeability–satuartion curves in relation with fluid viscosity and dynamic capillary pressure effect

“…Further it can be observed that water relative permeability decreases with increasing viscosity ratio while oil relative permeability increases with increasing viscosity ratio which is in line with experimental, numerical and modeling studies [31,41,60]. This behaviour can be explained using lubrication effect [32,35,39]. As the oil displaces water (drainage), a layer of water is trapped between oil and walls of the capillary.…”

“…For example, the reported effects of viscosity on K r -S w relationships in the literature have been inconsistent [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41].…”

“…Few experimental studies [32,38] show that relative permeability decreases with increasing viscosity ratio, l n l w , where l n and l w are the viscosities of the non-wetting and wetting phases, respectively. Another experimental study [33] shows that both oil (nonwetting) and water (wetting) relative permeability increase with increasing viscosity ratio.…”

Effect of Temperature, Wettability and Relative Permeability on Oil Recovery from Oil-wet Chalk

“…Amaefule and Handy [22] and Kumar et al [23] studied the effect of IFT and IFT/temperature on oil-water relative permeability, respectively. In their investigation, they used capillary number (N c ) to relate relative permeability behavior and IFT.…”

The study of relative permeability and residual gas saturation at high pressures and high temperatures

“…Experimental results from this study indicated that gas relative permeability is significantly influenced by temperature and pore pressure. On the other hand, other researchers found that the parameters that affect the relative permeability curve are a ratio between the viscous forces relative and capillary forces on the pore scale (Leverett, 1939;Bardon and Longeron, 1980;Ameafule and Handy, 1982;Boom et al, 1995;Henderson et al, 1996;Pope et al, 1998).…”