Abstract
Based on a core flooding experiment, a multiphase flow model considering the heterogeneity of porosity, permeability, capillary pressure, and relative permeability (i.e., the fully heterogeneous model) is proposed to analyze displacement in a natural sandstone core. Our results indicate (1) the fractal model approximately represents the porosity-permeability relationship of the core and combining it with the Leverett’s -function, it can be used to effectively describe the heterogeneity of capillary pressure; (2) although hypothetically assuming petro-physical properties at a few locations where obviously inhomogeneous structure and significant fluctuations of saturation are observed, the fully heterogeneous model is generally applicable to model two-phase flow in the sandstone core and can potentially reflect the saturation buildup; (3) the heterogeneity in capillary pressure plays an important role in generating local fluctuations of saturation profile and causing the heterogeneous saturation distribution, whereas the permeability heterogeneity can only result in slight fluctuations of saturation profile and has a small effect on the heterogeneous saturation distribution; and (4) an abrupt rise of saturation in the heterogeneous downstream region of the core cannot be fully reasonably interpreted by the heterogeneity of capillary pressure and permeability. The heterogeneity in the relative permeability can also possibly play an important role in causing such rise.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their constructive comments. This work was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 51376033 and 41004031) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. DUT15LAB18).
References
Behazadi, H., Alvarado, V., and Mallick, S. (2011). “FFF saturation, distribution and seismic response in two-dimensional permeability model.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 45(21), 9435–9441.
Benson, S. M., and Cole, D. R. (2008). “ sequestration in deep sedimentary formations.” Elements, 4(5), 325–331.
Birkholzer, J., Zhou, Q., and Tsang, C. (2009). “Large-scale impact of storage in deep saline aquifers: A sensitivity study on pressure response in stratified systems.” Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control, 3(2), 181–194.
Corey, A. T. (1954). “The interrelation between gas and oil relative permeabilities.” Prod. Mon., 19(1), 38–41.
Das, D. B., Mirzaei, M., and Widdows, N. (2006). “Non-uniqueness in capillary pressure-saturation-relative permeability relationships for two-phase flow in porous media: Interplay between intensity and distribution of random micro-heterogeneities.” Chem. Eng. Sci., 61(20), 6786–6803.
Krevor, S. C. M., Pini, R., Li, B., and Benson, S. M. (2011). “Capillary heterogeneity trapping of in a sandstone rock at reservoir conditions.” Geophys. Res. Lett., 38(15), L15401.
Krevor, S. C. M., Pini, R., Zuo, L., and Benson, S. M. (2012). “Relative permeability and trapping of and water in sandstone rocks at reservoir conditions.” Water Resour. Res., 48(2), W02532.
Kumar, A., Noh, M. H., Ozah, R. C., Pope, G. A., Bryant, S. L., and Sepehrnoori, K. (2005). “Reservoir simulation of storage in deep saline aquifers.” SPE J., 10(3), 336–348.
Kuo, C. W., Perrin, J. C., and Benson, S. (2011). “Simulation studies of effect of flow rate and small scale heterogeneity on multiphase flow of and brine.” Energy Procedia, 4(22), 4516–4523.
Leetaru, H. E., Frailey, S., Morse, D., Finley, R. J., Rupp, J. A., and Drahozval, J. A. (2009). “Carbon sequestration in the Mt. Simon Sandstone saline reservoir.” Carbon dioxide sequestration in geological media—State of the science: AAPG studies in geology, M. Grobe, J. C. Pashin, and R. L. Dodge, eds., Vol. 59, 261–277.
Leverett, M. C. (1941). “Capillary behavior in porous solids.” Trans. Am. Inst. Min., Metall. Pet. Eng., 142(1), 152–169.
Medina, C. R., Rupp, J. A., and Barnes, D. A. (2011). “Effects of reduction in porosity and permeability with depth on storage capacity and injectivity in deep saline aquifers: A case study from the Mount Simon Sandstone aquifer.” Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control, 5(1), 146–156.
Narasimhan, T. N., Witherspoon, P. A., and Edwards, A. L. (1978). “Numerical model for saturated-unsaturated flow in deformable porous media. 2: The algorithm.” Water Resour. Res., 14(2), 255–261.
Nordbotten, J. M., Celia, M. A., and Bachu, S. (2005). “Injection and storage of in deep saline aquifers: Analytical solution for plume evolution during injection.” Transp. Porous Media, 58(3), 339–360.
Pape, H., Clauser, C., and Iffland, J. (1999). “Permeability prediction based on fractal pore-space geometry.” Geophysics, 64(5), 1447–1460.
Perrin, J. C., Krause, M., Kuo, C. W., Miljkovic, L., Charoba, E., and Benson, S. M. (2009). “Core-scale experimental study of relative permeability properties of and brine in reservoir rocks.” Energy Procedia, 1(1), 3515–3522.
Saadatpoor, E., Bryant, S. L., and Sepehrnoori, K. (2009). “Effect of capillary heterogeneity on buoyant plumes: A new local trapping mechanism.” Energy Procedia, 1(1), 3299–3306.
Shi, J. Q., Xue, Z., and Durucan, S. (2011a). “Supercritical core flooding and imbibition in Berea sandstone—CT imaging and numerical simulation.” Energy Procedia, 4(22), 5001–5008.
Shi, J. Q., Xue, Z., and Durucan, S. (2011b). “Supercritical core flooding and imbibition in Tako sandstone—Influence of sub-core scale heterogeneity.” Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control, 5(1), 75–87.
Wang, D., et al. (2015). “Review: Approaches to research on two-phase migration in saline aquifers.” Hydrogeol. J., 23(1), 1–18.
Wu, Y. S., Zhang, K., Ding, C., Pruess, K., Elmroth, E., and Bodvarsson, G. S. (2002). “An efficient parallel-computing method for modeling nonisothermal multiphase flow and multicomponent transport in porous and fractured media.” Adv. Water Resour., 25(3), 243–261.
Zahid, U., Lim, Y., Jung, J., and Han, C. (2011). “ geological storage: A review on present and future prospects.” Korean J. Chem. Eng., 28(3), 674–685.
Zhang, K., Doughty, C., Wu, Y. S., and Pruess, K. (2007). “Efficient parallel simulation of geologic sequestration in saline aquifers.” Proc., 2007 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Reservoir Simulation Symp., Houston.
Zhang, K., Wu, Y. S., Ding, C., Pruess, K., and Elmroth, E. (2001). “Parallel computing techniques for large-scale reservoir simulation of multi-component and multi-phase fluid flow.” Proc., 2001 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Reservoir Simulation Symp., Houston.
Zhang, K., Wu, Y. S., and Pruess, K. (2008). “User’s guide for TOUGH2-MP—A massively parallel version of the TOUGH2 code.”, 108.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 3 • March 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 18, 2015
Accepted: Sep 17, 2015
Published online: Nov 20, 2015
Published in print: Mar 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 20, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.