Abstract
A number of forced gravity drainage experiments have been conducted using a wide range of the physical and operational parameters, wherein the type, length, and permeability of the porous medium as well as oil viscosity and injection rate were varied. Results indicate that an increase in the Bond number has a positive effect on oil recovery whereas the capillary number has an opposite effect. These trends were observed over a two-order of magnitude change in the value of the dimensionless groups. Furthermore, it was found that use of each number alone is insufficient to obtain a satisfactory correlation with recovery. A combined dimensionless group is proposed, which combines the effect of all the three forces. Recoveries from all the experiments conducted in this study show a very good correlation with the proposed group. The exponent of the Bond number in the proposed group is larger than the capillary number suggesting a larger importance for the former. We then show that the same group provides a good correlation for recovery from additional experiments conducted in this study (in the presence of connate water) with that of another set of experiments in the literature.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- A :
-
Scaling factor
- B :
-
Scaling factor
- g :
-
Gravitational constant ((m)/(s)2)
- k :
-
Absolute permeability (Darcy)
- N B :
-
Bond number, ratio of gravity to capillary forces
- N c :
-
Capillary number, ratio of viscous to capillary forces
- N co :
-
Combined dimensionless number
- Q i :
-
Injection rate (cm3/ min)
- v :
-
Displacement velocity (cm/ min)
- v c :
-
Maximum gravity drainage velocity (cm/ min)
- \({\phi}\) :
-
Core porosity, dimensionless
- σ :
-
Interfacial tension (mN/m)
- Δρ :
-
Density difference between gas and oil (kg/m3)
- μg :
-
Gas viscosity (cP)
- μo :
-
Oil viscosity (cP)
- μr :
-
Gas/oil viscosity ratio
- μw :
-
Wetting-phase viscosity (cP)
- ΔP cap :
-
Differential pressure imposed by capillary forces (bar)
- ΔP grav :
-
Differential pressure imposed by gravity forces (bar)
- ΔP vis :
-
Differential pressure imposed by viscous forces (bar)
- cP × 1.0E-03:
-
= Pa.s
- Darcy × 9.869E-13:
-
= m2
- cm3 × 1.0E-06:
-
= m3
- cm3 / min × 1.66E-08:
-
= m3/s
- bar × 1.03E+05:
-
= Pa
References
Auradou H., Maloy K.J., Schmittbuhl J., Hansen A., Bideau D.: Competition between correlated buoyancy and uncorrelated capillary effects during drainage. Phys. Rev. E. 60(6), 7224–7234 (1999)
Bangla, V.K., Yau, F., Hendricks, G.R.: Reservoir performance of a Gravity stable vertical CO2 miscible flood: Wolf camp reservoir., Wellman Unit. SPE 22898 presented at the 66th annual technical conference and exhibition (1991)
Birovljev A., Furuberg L., Feder J., Jossang T., Maloy K.J., Aharony A.: Gravity invasion percolation in two dimensions: experiment and simulation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 584–587 (1991)
Blackwell J.T., Terry M.W.: Factors influencing the efficiency of miscible displacement. Trans. AIME 216, 1–8 (1959)
Chatzis, I., Kantzas, A., Dullien, F.A.L.: On the investigation of gravity-assisted inert gas injection using micro models, long Berea sandstone cores, and computer-assisted tomography, SPE 18284 presented at the 1988 SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, Houston, TX, October 2–5 (1988)
Da Sle, W.J., Guo, D.S.: Assessment of vertical hydrocarbon miscible flood in the West perm Nisku D Reef. SPE Reserv. Eng. 5(2), 147–154 (1990)
Dumore J.M.: Stability consideration in downward miscible displacement. Soc. Pet. Eng. J. 4, 356–362 (1964)
Gharbi R.: Dimensionally scaled miscible displacement in heterogeneous permeable media. Transp. Porous Media 48, 271–290 (2002)
Grattoni C.A., Jing X.D., Dawe R.A.: Dimensionless groups for three-phase gravity drainage flow in porous media. J. Petrol. Sci. Eng. 29, 53–65 (2001)
Hagoort J.: Oil recovery by gravity drainage. Soc. Pet. Eng. J. 20(3), 139–150 (1980)
Jadhawar, P.S., Sarma, H.K.: Scaling and sensitivity analysis of Gas-oil gravity drainage EOR. SPE 115065 presented at SPE asia pacific oil & gas conference and exhibition. Perth, Australia (2008)
Kulkarni, M.M., Rao, D.N.: Characterization of operative mechanisms in gravity drainage field projects through dimensionless analysis. SPE 103230 presented at SPE annual technical conference and exhibition. San Antonio, TX (2006)
Kantzas, A., Chatzis, I., Dullien, F. A. L.: Enhanced oil recovery by inert gas injection. SPE 17379 presented at SPE/DOE symposium of oil recovery. Tulsa, U.S.A (1998)
Lovell G., Meheust Y., Maloy K.J., Aker E.: Competition of gravity, capillary, and viscous forces during drainage in a two-dimensional porous medium, a pore scale study. Energy 30(6), 861–872 (2005)
Meheust Y., Lovell G., Maloy K.J., Schmittbuhl J.: Interface scaling in a 2d porous medium under combined viscous, gravity and capillary effects. Phys. Rev. E 66, 51603–51615 (2002)
Rao, D.N., Ayirala, S.C., Kulkarni, M.M., Sharma, A.P.: Development of gas-assisted gravity drainage (GAGD) process for improved light oil recovery. SPE 89357 presented at the 14th SPE/DOE improved oil recovery symposium. Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A. (2004)
Singh M., Mani V., Honarpour M.M., Mohanty K.K.: Comparison of viscous and gravity dominated gas-oil relative permeabilities. J. Petrol. Sci. Eng. 30, 67–81 (2001)
Shook M., Li D., Lake L.W.: Scaling immiscible flow through permeable media by inspectional analysis. In-Situ 4, 311–349 (1992)
Skauge, A., Haskjold, G., Thorsen, T.T., Aarra, M.: Accuracy of gas-oil relative permeability from two-phase flow experiments. SCA 9707 presented at international symposium of the society of core analysis. Calgary, Canada (1997)
Wilkinson D.: Percolation effects in immiscible displacement. Phys. Rev. A 34, 1380–1391 (1986)
Wood D.J., Lake L.W., Johns R.T., Nunez V.: A screening model for CO2 flooding and storage in gulf coast reservoirs based on dimensionless groups. SPE Res. Eval. Eng. 11(3), 513–520 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rostami, B., Kharrat, R., Pooladi-Darvish, M. et al. Identification of Fluid Dynamics in Forced Gravity Drainage Using Dimensionless Groups. Transp Porous Med 83, 725–740 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-009-9478-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-009-9478-y