Immiscible Displacement in Cross-Bedded Heterogeneous Porous Media |
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Authors: | Dawe Richard A Caruana Albert Grattoni Carlos A |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago;(2) Rock Deformation Research Limited (RDR), Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK |
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Abstract: | Direct insight into the mechanisms of flow and displacements within small-scale (cm) systems having permeability heterogeneities
that are not parallel to the flow direction (cross-bedding and fault zones) have been carried out. In our experiments, we
have used visual models with unconsolidated glass bead packs having carefully controlled permeability contrasts to observe
the processes with coloured fluids and streamlines. The displacements were followed visually and by video recording for later
analysis. The experiments show the significance that heterogeneities have on residual saturations and recovery, as well as
the displacement patterns themselves. During a waterflood, high permeability regions can be by-passed due to capillary pressure
differences, giving rise to high residual oil saturations in these regions. This study demonstrates the importance of incorporating
reservoir heterogeneity into core displacement analysis, but of course the nature of the heterogeneity has to be known. In
general, the effects created by the heterogeneities and their unknown boundaries hamper interpretation of flood experiments
in heterogeneous real sandstone cores. Our experiments, therefore, offer clear visual information to provide a firmer understanding
of the displacement processes during immiscible displacement, to present benchmark data for input to numerical simulators,
and to validate the simulator through a comparison with our experimental results for these difficult flow problems. |
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