TY - JOUR

T1 - Connected pathway relative permeability from pore-scale imaging of imbibition

AU - Berg, S.

AU - Ruecker, M.

AU - Ott, Holger

AU - Georgiadis, A.

AU - van der Linde, H.

AU - Enzmann, F.

AU - Kersten, M.

AU - Armstrong, R. T.

AU - de With, S.

AU - Becker, J.

AU - Wiegmann, A.

PY - 2016/2/11

Y1 - 2016/2/11

N2 - Pore-scale images obtained from a synchrotron-based X-ray computed micro-tomography ( μCT) imbibi- tion experiment in sandstone rock were used to conduct Navier–Stokes flow simulations on the con- nected pathways of water and oil phases. The resulting relative permeability was compared with steady- state Darcy-scale imbibition experiments on 5 cm large twin samples from the same outcrop sandstone material. While the relative permeability curves display a large degree of similarity, the endpoint sat- urations for the μCT data are 10% in saturation units higher than the experimental data. However, the two datasets match well when normalizing to the mobile saturation range. The agreement is particularly good at low water saturations, where the oil is predominantly connected. Apart from different satura- tion endpoints, in this particular experiment where connected pathway flow dominates, the discrepan- cies between pore-scale connected pathway flow simulations and Darcy-scale steady-state data are minor overall and have very little impact on fractional flow. The results also indicate that if the pore-scale fluid distributions are available and the amount of disconnected non-wetting phase is low, quasi-static flow simulations may be sufficient to compute relative permeability. When pore-scale fluid distributions are not available, fluid distributions can be obtained from a morphological approach, which approximates capillary-dominated displacement. The relative permeability obtained from the morphological approach compare well to drainage steady state whereas major discrepancies to the imbibition steady-state exper- imental data are observed. The morphological approach does not represent the imbibition process very well and experimental data for the spatial arrangement of the phases are required. Presumably for mod- eling imbibition relative permeability an approach is needed that captures moving liquid-liquid interfaces, which requires viscous and capillary forces simultaneously.

AB - Pore-scale images obtained from a synchrotron-based X-ray computed micro-tomography ( μCT) imbibi- tion experiment in sandstone rock were used to conduct Navier–Stokes flow simulations on the con- nected pathways of water and oil phases. The resulting relative permeability was compared with steady- state Darcy-scale imbibition experiments on 5 cm large twin samples from the same outcrop sandstone material. While the relative permeability curves display a large degree of similarity, the endpoint sat- urations for the μCT data are 10% in saturation units higher than the experimental data. However, the two datasets match well when normalizing to the mobile saturation range. The agreement is particularly good at low water saturations, where the oil is predominantly connected. Apart from different satura- tion endpoints, in this particular experiment where connected pathway flow dominates, the discrepan- cies between pore-scale connected pathway flow simulations and Darcy-scale steady-state data are minor overall and have very little impact on fractional flow. The results also indicate that if the pore-scale fluid distributions are available and the amount of disconnected non-wetting phase is low, quasi-static flow simulations may be sufficient to compute relative permeability. When pore-scale fluid distributions are not available, fluid distributions can be obtained from a morphological approach, which approximates capillary-dominated displacement. The relative permeability obtained from the morphological approach compare well to drainage steady state whereas major discrepancies to the imbibition steady-state exper- imental data are observed. The morphological approach does not represent the imbibition process very well and experimental data for the spatial arrangement of the phases are required. Presumably for mod- eling imbibition relative permeability an approach is needed that captures moving liquid-liquid interfaces, which requires viscous and capillary forces simultaneously.

U2 - 10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.01.010

DO - 10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.01.010

M3 - Article

VL - 90 (2016)

SP - 24

EP - 35

JO - Advances in Water Resources

JF - Advances in Water Resources

SN - 1872-9657

ER -