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Article history:
Received 1 March 2007
Accepted 13 July 2008
Keyword:
gravity
drainage
uid ow
capillary
a b s t r a c t
This paper presents an investigation of gravity-driven ow in porous media using angular capillary tubes.
Gravity is important in many uid transport processes, such as ground water ow, oil ow in reservoir, and
water ow in subsurface in CO2 sequestration processes. In these processes, density contrast of the uids is
generally large, e.g., water vs. gas, or oil vs. gas. Gravity-driven ow of the denser uid largely takes control in
these processes. In particular, gravity-driven ow falls into two regimes in regarding to the denser uid: the
bulk ow (steady-state) and the lm/corner ow (unsteady-state) that follows. The geometrically
complicated ow channels in a porous medium are represented by shaped capillary tubes. As far as the
author knows, this work models for the rst time the unsteady-state laminar ow of Newtonian uids in
angular channels.
The uid distribution or the tail of the ow above the uid contact (Fig. 1) is governed by the uid dynamics.
Theoretical and numerical simulations of the lm/corner ow are conducted for the corner-shapes. The
results of this study provide basis for more detailed network models, which describe rock-uid systems at
microscopic level with deterministic solutions. The modeling procedure and results are useful for modeling
the performance of gravity dominated improved oil recovery processes, ground water ltration, and water
movement in a CO2 plume in CO2 sequestration processes.
2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.
1. Introduction
Gravity drainage is an important oil recovery mechanism in steamassistant-gravity-drainage (SAGD) processes (Butler, 1998; Canbolat
et al., 2004; Nabipour et al., 2007) and also in fractured oil reservoirs
(Jacquin et al., 1989; Nabipour et al., 2007). Gravity stable gas injection
processes have been applied successfully in elds for many years
(Bangla et al., 1993; Langeberg et al., 1995). In gas injection gravitydrainage processes, maintaining gravity stable displacement mode is
vital for success. Therefore, the general practice in a gas injection
gravity-drainage process is to inject gas at low rate (pressure), such
that the gravity dominates over capillary force. Gravity-dominated
processes are often modeled experimentally and theoretically
(Grattoni et al., 2001; Donato et al., 2006) as free gravity drainage,
which implies that no external pressure is applied between the top
and bottom of the reservoir. Capillary effects, wettability, interfacial
tension may have important impact on gravity-drainage processes
and performances (Schechter et al., 1994; Zhou and Blunt, 1998;
Shahidzadeh-Bonna et al., 2003). However, in gravity-dominated
conditions, naturally, gravity would be the most important factor.
Several proposed predictive models (Cardwell and Parsons, 1949;
Nenniger and Storrow, 1958; Dykstra, 1978; Pavone et al., 1989) have
been found to be unsatisfactory (Schechter and Guo, 1996) in
predicting the production response of a reservoir. More detailed and
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0920-4105/$ see front matter 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2008.07.006
ux; ydxdy
1 d
dz
r 2 p r 2 jp r2 g
8L
8
8
which is the HagenPoiseuille equation (Bird et al., 1960). Eq. (4) states
that the average velocity is linear to the pressure gradient. For other
cross-sectional shapes, the Newtonian uid assumption leads to
linearity of the average velocity and pressure gradient as well,
81
hui
a2 p a2 jp a2 p
BL
82
Fig. 2. FEA results: velocity prole in the corner (a = 0.001 m; = /6, g = 9810 Pa/m, = 0.001 Pa s). (a) Geometry of the corner, a = 0.001 m, = /6. (b) Velocity prole.
(t) and position (z), it becomes thinner over time at any particular
position and it becomes thicker downwards as the uid drains down.
The drainage is a free-surface problem, which can be solved using
numerical approaches, e.g., nite element method, nite boundary
element method. Goodwin and Homsy (1991) addressed this problem
with a boundary integral technical. Bird et al. addressed this problem
with a theoretical approach. Excluding evaporation effect, mass
conservation law applies and can be used to derive a partial
differential equation that governs the lm ow. Solution to the
problem is (Bird et al., 1960),
= gz=t 1=2
the detailed derivation for Eq. (6) is omitted since a similar derivation
for corner ow is presented in next section.
2.3. Unsteady-state corner ow
83
11
12
Fig. 4. The corner drainage problem: (a) Drainage in one corner. (b) Fluid distribution in
the cross-sectional area of the ow channel.
using the steady-state solution Eq. (5) obtained from FEM numerical
simulation, which states,
hui ga2 =
10
Fig. 5. (a) Characteristic drainage curve for corner ow. (b) Recovery versus dimensionless
time in an equal-lateral triangle shaped tube.
84
tD
Z
A3caD dzD
2
A dzD
0
13
14
For tD N 1, we have,
Np
Z 1
0
Z
A3caD 2 dzD
A dzD
Np 10:2=tD 1=2 :
15
Plot Eqs. (14) and (15) in Fig. 5(b) for a full range of tD, the
breakthrough oil production is about 0.80 IOIP, and the production
increases after breakthrough at a slower rate as described in Eq. (15).
Results show a low retention feature of the equal-lateral triangle
owing channel, indicating high efciency of gravity-drainage
process.
3. Discussions
3.1. Apply the analytical approach to other geometries
The above approach can be extended to other geometries. For
example, in a circular-shaped tube, the uid forms a uniformthickness lm in a cross-section. The relation Eq. (5) of average
velocity of the liquid lm and the lm thickness can be obtained
theoretically or numerically, and it can then be applied in the
derivation to obtain the partial differential equation. For other
geometries such as square, since the corner (90) does not restrict
the ows as much as the corner (60) in an equal-lateral triangle, the
lm along the wall may be more signicant and need to be taken into
account. Thus, the corner ow results would not be applicable directly.
A combination of corner and lm ow pattern has to be considered.
With lm and corner ow problem solved in this study, the
combination of lm and corner ow can also be solved in principle.
The methodology developed in this work may be incorporated
into network models for more complicated modeling of ow in
porous media.
17
18
16
Greek symbols
shape factor
lm thickness, m
viscosity, Pa s
characteristic function
density, kg/m3
uid potential, Pa
Appendix A. Derivation of equations for the unsteady-state
corner ow
In angular capillaries, most of the wetting phase ow occurs in
the corner regions as show in Fig. (4). First, use mass (volume)
85
A:7
comparing Eqs. (A.6) and (A.7) leads to the following two ordinary
differential equations,
huiz ca2z t
where buNz is the average velocity over the area at z; c =(1/tan()/2+),
is a constant only related to the half angle ; az is the interfacial
radius; caz2 is the cross-sectional area of the liquid occupied corner; t
is a small time interval. Similarly, the out-ow at position z +z, is,
dt=d
dz=dt 2ga2 =
A:8
A:9
dz=dt 2ga2 =
ca2tt ca2t
where cat2+ t and cat2 are the average cross-sectional area at time t + t
and t. Using mass (volume) conservation principle, we have,
huiz ca2z thuizz ca2zz t ca2tt ca2t z
A:1
the constant c is cancelled out from Eq. (A.1). Then use the relations
azz az a=zz
A:2
A:3
2
huiz hui=zz az a=zz t
hui a
2
z z
t
as z 0, neglect the three higher order terms, drop the subscript, z, the
left side of Eq. (A.1) becomes,
2huiaa=z a2 hui=z z t:
Similarly, the right-hand side,
a2tt a2t z
a2t 2 a=t at t a=t t 2 a2t z
2aa=t tz
thus, Eq. (A.1) becomes,
2huiaa=z a2 hui=z 2aa=t 0
A:4
A:5
A:10
A:6
A:11
z 0; t N 0
A:12
A:13
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