Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Relative permeability curves measurement and visualization of pore-scale multiphase flow in fracture porous media
Submission Author:
Marcio CARVALHO , RJ , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Vivian Sousa, Jorge Antonio Avendaño Benavides, Brenda Maria De Castro Costa, Marcio CARVALHO
Presenter: Vivian Sousa
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1563
Abstract
A significant amount of the world’s oil and gas reserves come from naturally fractured reservoirs. The heterogeneous nature of this type of formation, including the presence of fractures and vugs, causes the fluid flow to significantly differ from those of conventional reservoirs. Significant progress has been made towards modeling flow in fractured porous media. However, pore-scale phenomena of multiphase flow through the porous matrix embedded with vugs and fractures are still not fully understood. Understanding the flow characteristics at the pore level is necessary to relate macroscopic properties to microscopic displacement mechanisms. The aim of this study is to build relative permeability curves of fractured matrix systems using a microfluidic approach. For this purpose, experimental tests were conducted using PDMS/glass microfluidic devices to mimic fractured porous media. Porous media micromodels are widely used to get real-time flow behavior by visualizing in-situ phenomena. They are helpful to observe pore scale displacement, investigate a variety of phenomena. The combination of an inverted microscope and a high-speed camera allowed the visualization of the phases’ distribution within the porous media. Micrographs taken during the tests provided the necessary information for data analysis. The microfluidic devices were characterized in terms of constriction size distribution, height, porosity, absolute permeability, and pore volume. Two-phase flow tests were conducted to build the relative permeability curves in fractured and non-fractured porous media micromodels. The results indicate that the fractures have a significant effect on the relative permeability curves. Furthermore, in pore scale, fractures connected to a porous matrix show hysteresis effects in both drainage and imbibition processes which are demonstrated on the relative permeability curves.
Keywords
Fractured porous media, EOR, multiphase flow, Microchannel
