Fluid Flow in Porous Media

Porosity, Permeability, Saturation

By Mohammad Behnood

1
General Definition
References:

Reservoir Engineering Handbook – Tarek Ahmed

Fluid Flow in Porous Media - Heinemann

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General Definition
Basically two groups of porous media can be distinguished:

 intergranular-intragranular
 fractured

Materials having both, fractured and intergranular porosity, are

called dual (double)porous media.

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General Definition

On the other hand, concerning the mechanical properties, one

should distinguish between:

 consolidated
 unconsolidated

In a consolidated porous medium the particles (grains) are held

together by a cementing material, in an unconsolidated porous
medium the grains are loose.

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Porosity
Definition of Porosity
The porosity of porous media is defined as the ratio of the volume
of the pores to the total bulk volume of the media (usually
expressed as fraction or percent).

• Vp is the void volume (pore volume)

• Vs is the volume of the solid material.

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Compressibility of Porous Media
Compressibility of Porous Media
Reservoir rock is not considered to be a rigid system but as a - only
minor though – elastic and thus compressible medium. Change of
pressure inside the pore space during production also affects the
porosity.
The isothermal compressibility of porosity is defined as:

where φ0 is the porosity at the pressure p0.

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Compressibility of Porous Media

Sediment compaction and porosity

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Compressibility of Porous Media
However, cφ is small and normally regarded as a constant. The pore
volume alteration during the pressure drop in the reservoir has its
source in the elasticity of the solid. Therefore cφ will be a function
of porosity

Pore compressibilities of rocks

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Classification of Porosity
Classification of Porosity According to Flow Sharing
Total porosity (isolated pores are considered also)
Effective porosity (effective in the sense of fluid transport).

For granular materials such as

sandstone, the effective porosity
may approach the total porosity,
however, for shales and for highly
cemented or vugular rocks such
as some limestones, large
variations may exist between
effective and total porosity.

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Compressibility of Porous Media
The compressibility of the pore space is influenced by overburden
pressure too

Pore volume compressibility factor in terms of overburden

pressure
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Classification of Porosity
Classification of Porosity According to its Origin
Primary Porosity
Secondary Porosity

• Primary porosity forms during deposition of sediments and includes

interparticle (intergranular) and intraparticle (intragranular) porosities

• Secondary porosity forms after deposition and develops during

diagenesis by dissolution, dolomitization and through production of
fractures in the rock

• Internal chambers or other openings within individual or colonial skeletal

organisms are the most commonly recognized form of intraparticle pores.

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Classification of Porosity
Secondary porosity will divide in two type:
Fabric Secondary Porosity (intercrystalline or moldic porosity)
Non-Fabric Secondary Porosity (vuggy porosity and fracture
porosity)

• Vuggy porosity is a non-fabric selective porosity caused by selective

removal (solution) of grains in a rock.

• Fracture porosity generally refers to porosity that occurs along

breaks in a sediment or rock body where there has been little
mutual displacement along the fracture.

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Classification of Porosity

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Permeability
Definition of permeability
Permeability is the property of rocks that is an indication of the
ability for fluids (gas or liquid) to flow through rocks.

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Permeability
• Permeability depends on the geometry of the pore channel system
like the size, shape, tortuosity and number of the pore channels

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Darcy’s Law

𝑞𝛼𝐴
𝑞𝛼 △𝑝
𝑞
𝑞 𝛼 1/𝞵 𝐴 ∆𝑝
= …..
𝑞 𝛼 1/𝐿 𝜇 𝐿

𝑞
𝐴 ∆𝑝
Schematic diagram of DARCY’s experiment = −𝐾
𝜇 𝐿

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Darcy’s Law
• The permeability of a porous media will be 1 [Darcy], if at a 1 [cm2]
cross-section a fluid with 1 [cP] viscosity flowing with a rate of 1
[cm3/s] will cause a pressure drop of 1 [atm/cm]:

• By using the SI-units

• The relationship between the two units is:

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General Form of Darcy’s Law
𝐾𝐴 𝑑𝑝 𝜌𝑔 𝑑𝑧
𝑞=− ( + )
𝜇 𝑑𝑙 1.0133∗106 𝑑𝑙

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Measurements of Permeability
The method depends on the following factors:
• consolidation of the medium
• core size
• fluid properties
• the applied pressure

Samples from a consolidated media can be shaped as regular

geometrical forms:
• cylinders with a diameter ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 [m]
• cubes with 0.02 [m] length of the side.

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Measurements of Permeability
The rock sample - mostly formed cylindrically (core) - is fixed in
the device with a sealing rubber gaiter

Usually gas is used to measure permeability of core samples

instead of liquids

Since gas is the non-wetting fluid it does not alter the original
state of the core and the measurements can be repeated

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Measurements of Permeability

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Measurements of Permeability

The following conditions must exist during the measurement of permeability:

• Laminar (viscous) flow
• No reaction between fluid and rock
• Only single phase present at 100% pore space saturation. This measured permeability at
100% saturation of a single phase is called the absolute permeability of the rock.
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Measurements of Permeability
Example
• A brine is used to measure the absolute permeability of a core plug. The rock sample
is 4 cm long and 3 cm2 in cross section. The brine has a viscosity of 1.0 cp and is
flowing a constant rate of 0.5 cm3/sec under a 2.0 atm pressure differential.
Calculate the absolute permeability.
Solution

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Measurements of Permeability
Example
• Rework the above example assuming that an oil of 2.0 cp is used to measure the
permeability. Under the same differential pressure, the flow rate is 0.25 cm3/sec.

• Solution

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Measurements of Permeability
• Dry gas is usually used (air, N2, He) in permeability determination because of its
convenience, availability, and to minimize fluid-rock reaction.

• The measurement of the permeability should be restricted to the low

(laminar/viscous) flow rate region, where the pressure remains proportional to flow
rate within the experimental error. For high flow rates, Darcy’s is inappropriate to
describe the relationship of flow rate and pressure drop.

• In using dry gas in measuring the permeability, the gas volumetric flow rate q varies
with pressure because the gas is a highly compressible fluid. Therefore, the value of
q at the average pressure in the core must be used

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Measurements of Permeability
• To convert the flow rate to a flow rate measured under atmospheric pressure pa,
while ideal gas behavior is assumed

• qa is the flow rate of gas at atmospheric pressure pa

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Klinkenberg Effect
• The permeability of a rock is a constant value, unchanged by
different types of fluids that have different viscosities or other
physical properties

• This rule is followed by all liquids at laminar flow rates that are
nonreactive with the rock

• However, when gases are used as the flowing fluid at low

pressures, calculated permeability may be greater than true
permeability of the rock.

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Measurements of Permeability
• Klinkenberg described that liquids had a zero velocity at the grain
surface, while gases exhibited some finite velocity at the grain
surface. In other words, the gases exhibited slippage at the grain
surface.

Liquids Gasses

This surface slipping decreases with increasing pressure. However, at

low pressure this effect is responsible for the deviation of the gas
permeabilities.
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Measurements of Permeability
• Klinkenberg also found that for a given porous medium as the mean pressure
increased the calculated permeability decreased.

Finally the following equation

was generate

where kL = equivalent liquid

permeability, i.e., absolute
permeability, k
b = constant that depends on the
size of the pore openings and
is inversely proportional to radius
of capillaries.

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
• The most difficult reservoir properties to determine usually are the level and
distribution of the absolute permeability throughout the reservoir. They are
more variable than porosity and more difficult to measure. Yet an adequate
knowledge of permeability distribution is critical to the prediction of reservoir
depletion by any recovery process. It is rare to encounter a homogeneous
reservoir in actual practice. In many cases, the reservoir contains distinct layers,
blocks, or concentric rings of varying permeabilities. Also, because smaller-scale
heterogeneities always exist, core permeabilities must be averaged to represent
the flow characteristics of the entire reservoir or individual reservoir layers
(units). The proper way of averaging the permeability data depends on how
permeabilities were distributed as the rock was deposited.

• There are three simple permeability-averaging techniques:

• Weighted-average permeability
• Harmonic-average permeability
• Geometric-average permeability

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
Weighted-Average Permeability
• This averaging method is used to determine the average permeability of layered-
parallel beds with different permeabilities

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
Following figure shows a similar layered system with variable layers width.
Assuming no cross-flow between the layers, the average permeability can be
approximated in a manner similar to the above derivation to give:

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
Harmonic-Average Permeability
• Permeability variations can occur laterally in a reservoir as well as in the vicinity
of a well bore. Consider following figure, which shows an illustration of fluid flow
through a series combination of beds with different permeabilities.

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
• For a steady-state flow, the flow rate is constant and the total pressure drop Δp is
equal to the sum of the pressure drops across each bed, or

• The above equation can be expressed in a more generalized form to give:

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
• In the radial system shown in Figure 4-28, the above averaging methodology can
be applied to produce the following generalized expression:

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Averaging Absolute Permeabilities
Geometric-Average Permeability
• Warren and Price (1961) illustrated experimentally that the most probable
behavior of a heterogeneous formation approaches that of a uniform system
having a permeability that is equal to the geometric average. The geometric
average is defined mathematically by the following relationship:

• If the thicknesses (hi) of all core samples are the same, Equation can be
simplified as follows:

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Saturation
• Basically pore space may contain several phases. The saturation of
a certain phase is defined as:

• Applying the above mathematical concept of saturation to each

reservoir fluid gives:

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Saturation

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Saturation
• The fluids in most reservoirs are believed to have reached a state of
equilibrium and, therefore, will have become separated according
to their density, i.e., oil overlain by gas and underlain by water

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Saturation
Critical (Connate or Irreducible) Water Saturation (Swc or Swirr)
• In addition to the bottom (or edge) water, there will be connate water
distributed throughout the oil and gas zones

• The water in these zones will have been reduced to some irreducible
minimum

• It is generally not uniformly distributed throughout the reservoir but

varies with permeability, lithology, and height above the free water level.

• The forces retaining the water in the oil and gas zones are referred to as
capillary forces because they are important only in pore spaces of
capillary size.
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Saturation
Critical Oil Saturation (Soc)
• For the oil phase to flow, the saturation of the oil must exceed a
certain value, which is termed critical oil saturation. At this
particular saturation, the oil remains in the pores and, for all
practical purposes, will not flow.

Residual Oil Saturation (Sor)

• During the displacing process of the crude oil system from the
porous media by water or gas injection (or encroachment), there
will be some remaining oil left that is quantitatively characterized
by a saturation value that is larger than the critical oil saturation.
This saturation value is called the residual oil saturation, Sor. The
term residual saturation is usually associated with the nonwetting
phase when it is being displaced by a wetting phase.
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Saturation
Movable Oil Saturation (Som)
• Movable oil saturation Som is another saturation of interest and
isdefined as the fraction of pore volume occupied by movable oil as
expressed by the following equation:

Critical Gas Saturation

• As the reservoir pressure declines below the bubble-point
pressure, gas evolves from the oil phase and consequently the
saturation of the gas increases as the reservoir pressure declines.
The gas phase remains immobile until its saturation exceeds a
certain saturation, called critical gas saturation, above which gas
begins to move.

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Saturation
Average Saturation
• Proper averaging of saturation data requires that the saturation
values be weighted by both the interval thickness hi and interval
porosity φ. The average saturation of each reservoir fluid is
calculated from the following equations:

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