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Derivation of The Fluid Flow Equation

The document derives the fluid flow equation for single-phase flow in porous media by combining principles of conservation of mass, Darcy's law, and the equation of state. It shows that the continuity equation can be written in terms of partial derivatives and combined with Darcy's law and the equation of state relating density to pressure to obtain the diffusivity equation. Finally, it presents the diffusivity equation for single-phase flow in one, two, and three dimensions as well as for radial flow.

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Stive Brack
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90 views4 pages

Derivation of The Fluid Flow Equation

The document derives the fluid flow equation for single-phase flow in porous media by combining principles of conservation of mass, Darcy's law, and the equation of state. It shows that the continuity equation can be written in terms of partial derivatives and combined with Darcy's law and the equation of state relating density to pressure to obtain the diffusivity equation. Finally, it presents the diffusivity equation for single-phase flow in one, two, and three dimensions as well as for radial flow.

Uploaded by

Stive Brack
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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University of Baghdad Reservoir Simulation

Department of Petroleum Engineering 2021

Derivation of the Fluid Flow Equation .2


:The complete mathematical model is a combination of
1. Governing equation
2. Boundary conditions
3. Initial conditions
The basic equations are obtained by combing several physical principles namely:
1. Conservation of mass.
2. Rate equation.
3. Equation of State
The flow equations for single and multiphase flow are obtained by combining appropriate forms
of Darcy’s law and the equation of mass conservation. The fluid density is expressed explicitly or
implicitly as a function of pressure through an equation of state.

Conservation of Mass
The law of conservation of mass is a material-balance equation written for a component in
a control volume of the system to be modeled. In petroleum reservoirs, the control volume is made
up of a porous medium containing one, two or three phases. This section concerns single-phase
fluid. The porous medium is treated as a continuum whose physical properties at any point are
those of a representative element of the medium. The control volume, whose shape depends on the
coordinate system used in the model.
Now, consider an element of a reservoir through which a single-phase is flowing in the x-
direction.

4
University of Baghdad Reservoir Simulation
Department of Petroleum Engineering 2020

Mass rate in – Mass rate out = Mass rate of accumulation


𝜌 ∆ 𝜌
𝑣 𝜌 ∆𝑦 ∆𝑧 𝑣 ∆ 𝜌 ∆ ∆𝑦 ∆𝑧 ∆𝑥 ∆𝑦 ∆𝑧 ∅
∆𝑡
Dividing by Δx Δy Δz
∆ ∆ ∆ ∆
∅ (A)
∆ ∆

Now the simultaneous limits over time and space that is, look at an instant of time as the
control volume shrinking to infinitesimal.
𝑣 ∆ 𝜌 ∆ 𝑣 𝜌 𝜌 ∆ 𝜌
lim lim ∅
∆ → ∆𝑥 ∆ → ∆𝑡

In the above equation, we can recognize the definition of the first-order partial derivative with
respect to time and space coordinates (x and t).
For the space variable:
𝜕𝑓 𝑓 𝑥 ∆𝑥 𝑓 𝑥
lim
𝜕𝑥 ∆ → ∆𝑥

For the time variable:


𝜕𝑓 𝑓 𝑡 ∆𝑡 𝑓 𝑡
lim
𝜕𝑡 ∆ → ∆𝑡

Therefore, Equation (A) can be written as


𝜕 𝑣𝜌 𝜕𝜌
∅
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡
This is the continuity equation in a linear system. Similarly
𝜕 𝑣𝜌 𝜕𝜌
∅
𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑡
𝜕 𝑣𝜌 𝜕𝜌
∅
𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑡

Then the continuity equation in three-dimensional flow,


𝜕 𝑣𝜌 𝜕 𝑣𝜌 𝜕 𝑣𝜌 𝜕𝜌
∅
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑡

5
University of Baghdad Reservoir Simulation
Department of Petroleum Engineering 2021

Rate Equation
Darcy’s law is an empirical relationship between fluid flow rate through a porous media
and potential gradient. For single-phase, one-dimensional flow, this law can be expressed in a
differential form as:
𝑞 𝑘 𝜕𝑝
𝑣
𝐴 𝜇 𝜕𝑥
Substitute the above equation into the continuity equation:
𝑘 𝜕𝑝
𝜕 𝜌 𝜕𝜌
𝜇 𝜕𝑥
∅
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡
The flow equation can be written as follows by expanding the left-hand side:

𝜌 ∅ (B)

The above equation can be simplified somewhat by noting that


𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝑝
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑥
𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝑝
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑡
If we arrange Equation (B), it becomes
𝑘 𝜕 𝑝 𝑘 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝑝
𝜌 ∅
𝜇 𝜕𝑥 𝜇 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑡

𝑘 𝜕 𝑝 𝑘 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝜌 𝜕𝑝
𝜌 ∅
𝜇 𝜕𝑥 𝜇 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑡

Neglecting the term since we are going to assume small pressure gradient, the above
equation becomes

𝜌 ∅ (C)

Equation of State
The equation of state is needed to express the density in terms of pressure. Most of oil
field systems are considered to be slightly compressible.
In this case, the equation of state is:

𝜌 𝜌 𝑒

6
University of Baghdad Reservoir Simulation
Department of Petroleum Engineering 2021

. ρ is the density of fluid at pressure p


. ρo is the density of fluid at pressure po
.c is the isothermal compressibility factor
1 𝜕𝑉
𝑐
𝑉 𝜕𝑝

Dividing both sides of Equation (C) by the density (ρ)

By definition, the compressibility as follows


1 𝜕𝜌
𝑐
𝜌 𝜕𝑝
Then,
𝑘 𝜕 𝑝 𝜕𝜌
∅𝑐
𝜇 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡

Since was considered independent of spatial dimension

𝜕 𝑝 ∅ 𝜇 𝑐 𝜕𝜌
𝜕𝑥 𝑘 𝜕𝑡

If were a function of the spatial dimension.

𝑘 𝜕𝑝
𝜕 𝜕𝜌
𝜇 𝜕𝑥
∅𝑐
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑡
This equation is generally called the diffusivity equation.
The following equations are for other coordinate systems:
For radial flow,
𝜕 𝑝 1 𝜕𝑝 ∅ 𝜇 𝑐 𝜕𝜌
𝜕𝑟 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝑘 𝜕𝑡
For two- dimensional flow,
𝜕 𝑝 𝜕 𝑝 ∅ 𝜇 𝑐 𝜕𝑝
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝑘 𝜕𝑡
For three- dimensional flow,
𝜕 𝑝 𝜕 𝑝 𝜕 𝑝 ∅ 𝜇 𝑐 𝜕𝑝
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧 𝑘 𝜕𝑡

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